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UK 




THE 



JUDGES OF ENGLAND; 

WITH 

SKETCHES OF THEIR LIVES, 

AND 

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES 

CONNECTED WTTH 

THE COURTS AT WESTMINSTER, 

FROM THE CONQUEST TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



BY EDWARD FOSS, F.S.A: 



OF THE INNER TEMPLE. 



VOL. IX. 

CONTAINING THE REIGNS OF 

GEORGE IV., WILLIAM IV., AND VICTORIA. 

1820—1864. 



LONDON : 
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET. 

1864. 



TAe riaht of tramlation it reserved. 



IiONDON 

PBINTBD BY 8P0TTIBW00DB AlTD CO. 

ITKW-STRKKT SQTTAEE 



tSo$ 




CONTENTS 



OF 

THE NINTH VOLUME. 



PAGE 



George IV., 1820—1830. 

Survey of the Reign - - - - 1 — 8 

Biographical Notices . - - - 9 — 54 

William IV., 1830—1837. 

Survey of the Reign - - - - 55 — 67 

Biographical Notices - - - - 68— 98 

Victoria, 1837—1864. 

Survey of that part of the Reign which has 

passed . - - . . 99—129 

Biographical Notices - - - - 130 — 325 

Index, in which the names of the Judges in the 

Volume are given - - - - 327 — 329 

Alphabetical Index of all the Judges from 1066 — 

1864 - - - - - I — xLvir 



THE 



JUDGES OF ENGLAND. 



GEORGE IV. 

Reigned 10 years, 4 months, and 28 days; from January 29, 1820, 

to Jane 26, 183a 



SUEVEY OF THE BEIGN. 

In addition to the ten years of his positive reign as king, 
George IV. really exercised the functions of sovereignty 
for the nine previous years, under the title of Regent. Every 
legal event that happened during that period has been 
necessarily noticed under the reign of George III., and the 
only changes that require mention here, as occurring in the 
succeeding ten years, are with reference to the salaries of 
the judges. In 1825 their remuneration was placed upon 
a more substantial footing. The fees to which they were 
entitled in addition to their nominal salaries, were ordered 
to be paid or accounted for into the Exchequer, and the 
offices, which had hitherto been under the patronage of the 
chief justices, were placed under a different regulation and 
declared to be no longer saleable. In lieu of these fees and 
perquisites the following salaries and pensions on retirement 
were fixed by statutes 6 Geo. IV. c 82, 83, 84. 



Lord Chief Justice of King's Bench . 
Lord Chief Justice of Common Pleas . 
The Master of the Eolls 



Salaries. 


Pensions. 


£10,000 


£4,000 


8,000 


3,760 


7,000 


3,750 



VOL. IX. 



2 LORD CHANCELLOES— VICE-CHANCELLOES. Gborob IV. 

Salaries. Pexudons. 

The Vice-Ohancellop of England . . . £6,000 £3,760 
The Chief Baron of the Exchequer . . 7,000 8,760 

The Puisne Judges and Barons^ each . , 5,600 8,600 

Tte reward of 40Z. per annum to the second judge of the 
King's Bench^ in addition to his salary^ was continued. 

LoED Chancellors. 

John, Lord Eldon, the lord chancellor for eighteen 
years in the last reign, retained the great seal for seven 
years in this. He was advanced to an earldom on July 6, 
1821. On his resignation, 

John Singleton, Lord Lyndhurst, master of the 
KoUs, was sworn lord chancellor on April 30, 1827, and 
continued in office till the death of the king. 

Masters or the Rolls. 

Sir Thomas Plumer continued master of the Rolls 
till his death. He was succeeded by 

Robert, Lord Gifford, chief justice of the Common 
Pleas, on April 5, 1824, who likewise died in his office 
after enjoying it less than two years and a half. 

Sir John Singleton Copley, the attorney-general, 
was appointed on September 14, 1826; but being made 
lord chancellor in the next year (in preparation for which 
he was created Lord Lyndhurst on April 27, 1827), 

Sir John Leach, vice-chancellor of England, received 
his patent as master of the Rolls on May 3, 1827, and was 
still in the office on the demise of the king. 

Vice-Chancellors of England. 

Sir John Leach held this office upwards of seven 
years from the beginning of this reign ; when he was moved 
to the Rolls, and 



1820—1830. CHANCERY — ^KING'S BENCH. 3 

Sir Anthony Hart, a king's counsel, was made vice- 
chancellor on May 4, 1827 ; but on his elevation six months 
after to the chancellorship of Ireland,- 

Sir Lancelot Shadwell, also a king's counsel, re- 
ceived the appointment on November 1, 1827, and held it 
at the end of the reign. 

Masters in Chancery. 



Sir Thomas Plnmer, M. R. 


- 


1 to 5 Geo. IV. 


John Simeon - - - - 


- 


Ito 5 




John Campbell, A. G. 1820-1826 


- 


Ito 7 


— ■ 


Francis Paul Stratford - - - 


. 


Ito 11 


— ._ 


John Springett Harvey, A. G. 1826-1830 


- 


Ito 11 


— 


Samuel Compton Cox - - - 


- 


Ito 11 


— 


Charles Thomson - - - 


- 


Ito 2 


_ 


William Alexander, afterwards lord chief baron 


Ito 4 


— 


James Stephen - - - - 


- 


Ito 11 


— 


Joseph Jekyll - 


- 


Ito 4 


— 


William Courtenay, afterwards Earl of Devon 


- 


Ito 7 


— 


John E. Dowdeswell - - - 


. 


Ito 11 




Francis Cross - - - - 


- 


2 to 11 




James Trower - - - - 


- 


4 to 11 




William Wingfield 


- 


5 to 11 




James William Farrer - - - 


- 


5 to 11 


— 


Robert, Lord Qifford, M. R. - 


- 


5to 6 


— — 


Sir John Singleton Copley, M. R., afterwards 






Lord Lyndhurst - - - 


- 


6 to 7 


— 


Robert Henley Eden, afterwards Lord Henley 


- 


7 to 11 


— 


Giffin Wilson - - - - 


- 


7 to 11 


— 


Sir John Leach, M. R. - 


• 


7 to 11 


— _ 



Chief Justice of the King's Bench. 

Sir Charles Abbott was lord chief justice from the 
commencement to the end of the reign. He was called up 
to the House of Peers on April 30, 1827, by the title of 
Lord Tenterden. 

B 2 



king's bench — COMMON PLEAS. Geobge IV. 



Justices of the King's Bench. 

I. 1820. Jan. John Bayley. 

George Sowley Holroyd. 
William J>raper Best. 
V. 1824. April 30. Joseph Littledale, vice W. D. Best 
IX. 1828. Nov. 18.. James Parke, vice G. S. Holroyd. 

The judges of the King's Bench at the end of the 
reign were 

Lord Tenterden, chief justice, 
Sir John Bayley, Sir Joseph Littledale, 

Sir James Parke. 



Chief Justices of the Common Pleas. 

Sir Robert Dallas, continued chief justice of the 
Common Pleas nearly five years of this reign ; and on his 
retirement 

Sir Robert Gifford, the attorney-general, was made 
chief justice of this Court on January 9, 1824, and was 
thereupon elevated to the peerage as Lord Gifford ; but in 
three months was removed into the Rolls ; and 

Sir William Draper Best, one of the judges of the 
King's Bench, was appointed chief justice in his place on 
April 15, 1824. His infirmities obliged him to retire in 
five years, when he was created Lord Wynford, 

Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal, the solicitor-general, 
succeeded him on June 9, 1829, and was chief justice at 
the king's death. 



Justices of the Common Pleas. 

I. 1820. Jan. James Alan Park. 

James Burrough. 
John Bichardson. 
V* 1824. July 5. Stephen Qaselee, vice J. Eichardson. 



1820^1830. 



EXCHEQUER — CHANCEBY. 



IX. 1830. Feb. 1. John Bernard Bosanquet, vice J. Buirougli. 

The jadges of the Common Pleas at the deatili of 
the King weie 

Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal, chief justice, 
Sir James Alan Fark^ Sir Stephen Gaselee^ 

Sir John Bemazd Bosanqaet 



Chief Babons of the Exchequer. 

Sib Bichabd Bichabds retained the office of lord 
chief baron for nearly four years in this reign ; when he 
died and was succeeded by 

Sir William Alexanbeb^ a master in Chancery^ on 
January 9, 1824^ who continued during the remainder of 
the reign. 

Babons of the Exchequeb. 



X 1820. Jan. 



IV. 1823. Maich 1. 
1824 July 6. 
Vni. 1827. Feb. 24. 
X. 1829. Nov. 16. 



Robert Graham. 

George Wood. 

William Garrow. 

Francis Maseres, cnrsitor. 

John Hullock, yice G. Wood. 

George Bankes^ cursitor^ vice. F. Maseres. 

John Yaughan^ yice K. Graham. 

William Bolland^ vice J. Hullock. 
At the death of George lY. the barons were 

Sir William Alexander, chief baron, 
Sir William Garrow, Sir William Bolland, 
Sir John Yaughan, George Bankes, Esq., cuisitor. 



Chanceby. 



A.R. 


A.D. 


Lord Chahcbllobs. 


Mastbbb or THB Bolls. 


Vicb-Chancblloks. 


1 
2 
5 
7 
8 


1820. Jan. 

1821. Jaly 6. 
1824. April 5. 

1826. Sept. 14. 

1827. May 2. 

Nov. 1. 


John, Lord Eldon 
cr. Earl of Eldon 

John Singleton, Lord 
Lyndhnrst 


Sir Thomas Plomer 

Bobt.,LordGifford 
Sir J. S. Copley 
Sir John Leach 


Sir John Leach. 

Sir Anthony Hart 

Sir Lancelot 
Shadwell. 



KINO S BENCH — ATTOBNEY-GENEBALS. George IV. 



CouBT OF Eokg's Bench. 



A.R. 

1 
6 
8 
9 


A.D. 


Chiip Josticbs. 


JoDon or TBB KiNo*a Bench. 


1890. Jan. 
1834. April 30. 

1837. April 30. 

1838. Nor. 18. 


Charles Abbott 
cr. Lord Tenterden 

• 


John Baylqr 


G. S. Holroyd 
Jamet Parke 


W. D. Best. 
Joseph LitUedale. 



CouBT OF Common Pleas. 



A.R. 

1 

4 

5 

10 
11 


A.D. 


Chiit JusTicn. 


Jdoobs or THE Common Plbas. 


1830. Jan. 
1834. Jan. 9. 

April 15. 

July 6. 
1829. June 9. 
183U. Feb. 1. 


Robert Dallas 
Robert, Lord Gif- 

ford 
W. D. Best 

N. C. Tindal 


J. A. Park 


James Burrongh 
J. B. Bosanquet 


John Richardson. 
Stephen Gaselee. 



CoUBT OF EXCHEQUEB. 



A.R. 



1 
4 

8 
10 



A.D. 



1820. Jan. 
1833. March 1. 
1824. Jan. 9. 
1837. Feb. 34. 
1839. Mot. 16. 



Chibt Bakons. 



Richard Richards 
Wm. Alexander 



Bakons of tbb Excbbqubr. 



Robert Graham 
John Vaughan 



George Wood 
John Hullock 



wmiam BolUnd 



William Garrow. 



CuRSiTOR Barons. 
1820. Francis Maseres. 1834. July 6. George Bankes. 



Attobney-Genebals. 



L 1820. Jan. 
IV. 1824. Jan. 9. 
Vn. 1826. Sept. 20. 
Vni. 1827. April 27. 
rX. 1828. Feb. 19. 
X. 1829. June 29. 



Robert Gifford, made Cb. 0. P. 
John Singleton Copley^ made M. B. 
Charles Wetherell, resigned. 
James Scarlett, resigned. 
Charles Wetherell, resigned. 
James Scarlett 



1 820—1 830. solicitoe-generals — serjeants. 7 

Solicitor-Geneeals. 

I. 1820. Jan. John Singleton Copley^ made attomej-general. 

IV. 1824. Jan. 12. Charles Wetherell, made attorney-general. 

Vn. 1826. Sept 20. ^ Nicolas Gonyngham Tindal, made Ch. C. P. 
X. 1829. June 29. Edward Burtenshaw Sugden. 

Serjeants-at-Law. 

The Inn of Court is noted by the added initial ; and an 
asterisk is placed before those who became judges. 

I. 1820. Thomas Peake (L.) 

Motto, " Equi Lege." 
IV. 1824. ♦Robert Gifford (M.) •William Alexander (M.) 

Motto, ^^ Secmidis lahorihus.'^ 
V. 'Joseph Littledale (G.) 

MottO; " JustitisB tenax." 
•Stephen Gaselee (I.) John Adams (M.) 

Bobert Spankie (I.) 

Motto, " Bonis legibus, judiciis gravibns." 
William St. J. Arabin (I.) •Thomas Wilde (I.) 
Motto, " Regi,.Ilegnoque fidelis." 
Vm. 1827. Dav.F. Jones (Atcherley)(M.) Thomas Andrews (G.) 
Henry Storks (L.) William O. RusseU. 

Ebenezer Ludlow (G.) John Scriven. 

Henry A. Merewether. Henry J. Stephen (I.) 

Edward Lawes (I.) Charles C. Bompas (I.) 

Motto of the seven first, "More majorum; " three 
last, '^ Lex ratione probatur." 
IX. 1828. • James Parke (L) 

Motto, " Justitise tenax." 
X. 1829. Edward Goulbum (M.) 

Motto, " Nulla retrorsum." 
•Nicolas Gonyngham Tindal (L.)^ 

Motto, '* Quid leges sine moribus ? " 
•WiUiam Bolland (I.) 

Motto, *' Regi, Regnoque fidelis." 

King's Serjeants. 

vm. 1827. •John Bernard Bo8anquet(L.) William Taddy (I.) 
John Cross (L.) •Thomas Wilde (L) 



8 king's counsel — INNS. GsoftQS IV. 

The power given in the previous reign of creating a 
Serjeant in the vacation for the purpose of promoting him 
to the Bench, was extended in this reign by statute 6 Geo. 
IV. c. 95, to the appointment of any Serjeant during the 
vacation without such an object. 

King's Counsel. 

Ineluding thote who had patents of precedencej which if granted in the pre- 
vious reign were renewed in thie. 

William George Adam. Frederick Pollock.'* 

Hemry Bickersteth. Christopliei Puller. 

Heniy Brougham. George Rose. 

John Campbell. Edward Burtenshaw Sugden. 

Eobert Matthew Gasberd. Lancelot Shadwell. 

Thomas Denman. William Selwyn. 

Thomas Erskine. William Elias Taunton. 

John Fonblanque. William Henry l^nney. 

Thomas Jervis. Thomas Crosby Tresloye. 

James Lewis Knight-Bruce. Horace Twiss. 

Charles Ewen Law. Charles Wetherell. 

Thomas Femberton Leigh. Charles Frederick Williams. 

Charles C. Fepys. John Williams. 



The right of the Inns of Court to refuse to admit an in- 
dividual as a member of their societies was recognised by 
the judges of the King's Bench in Michaehnas term 1825^ 
by their refusing to grant a mandamus applied for by Mr. 
Wooller against the Benchers of Lincoln's Inn ; 4 Bam. & 
Cress. 855. A similar refusal was given in 1827 to Mr. 
Gresham on his application for a mandamus against the 
Principal and ancients of Barnard's Inn, an Inn of Chancery. 
5 Adolp.& Ellis 17. 



9 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 

OF 

THE JUDGES UNDER THE REIGN OF GEORGE IV. 



ABBOTT, CHARLES, Lobd Tbntebden. 

Ch. E. R 1820. 

See under the Reigns of George III. and William IV. 
ALEXANDER, WILLIAM. 

Ch. B. £. 1824. 
See under the Reign of William IV. 

BANKES, GEORGE. 

Cubs. B. E. 1824. 

See under the Reigns of William IV. and Victoria. 

i BAYLEY, JOHN. 

JuBT. E. B. 1820. 

See under the Reigns of George III. and William IV. 

BEST, WILLIAM DRAPER, afterwards Lord Wykpoed. 

Just. E. B. 1820. Ch. C. P. 1824. 
See ander the Reign of George IIL 

While this judge was an actor on the legal stage he was 
only known by his patronymic^ his title of Lord Wynford 
not having being given to him till he had retired from the 
bench. He was bom on December 13^ 1767^ at Hasselbury 



10 WILLIAM DRAPER BEST. GfiOBOE IV. 

Plunknett in Somersetshire^ the third son of his father 
Thomas Best, Esq., by a daughter of Sir William Draper, 
well known as the antagonist of " Junius.'' Left an orphan 
in infancy he was sent to the school of the neighbouring 
town of Crewkeme, and at the age of fifteen was removed to 
Wadham College, Oxford, where he was educated with the 
view of entering the Church. This plan he was induced to 
relinquish in consequence of coming into possession, by the 
death of a near relation, of a considerable estate. Then 
selecting the law as his profession he entered the Middle 
Temple on October 9, 1784 ; and being called to the bar on 
November 6, 1789, joined the Home Circuit.* 

Very early in his career he had the good fortune to extract 
a flattering eulogium from Lord Kenyon in a case which he 
argued in the court of King's Bench. This was so unwonted 
in the chief justice that it was sure to attract attention ; and 
he consequently soon received ample employment. Though 
superficial in legal knowledge, his readiness of comprehension 
and fluency of speech enabled him to avail himself of his 
early success, and his increase of business warranted him in 
accepting the degree of the coif in 1800. His services were 
in great requisition, not only in his own court of Common 
Pleas but in the other courts of Westminster Hall ; and he 
sometimes appeared on important criminal trials. He suc- 
ceeded for WiUiam Macfarlane, charged in 1802 with de- 
stroying the brig Adventure, upon a point of law taken 
by him and Mr. Erskine. In the case of Colonel Despard, 
whom in the next year he defended, the evidence of high 
treason was too clear to leave a hope for acquittal. 

He entered parliament in 1802 as member for Petersfield, 
and took a prominent part in its proceedings ; particularly 

' In Law and Lawyers, i. 29, it is said that Lord Wjnford commenced his 
legal studies in an attorney's office, bnt I have not foand any other aathority 
for the statement 



1820—1830. WILLIAM DRAPER BEST. 11 

in reference to naval affairs and public accounts. He was 
one of the acting managers on the impeachment of Lord 
Melville, and, with Sir Samuel Romilly, answered the legal 
objections taken by the counsel for the defence. A bill for 
the improvement of the livings of the London clergy was 
originated by him, for which that reverend body showed their 
gratitude by presenting him with a valuable piece of plate. 
In 1814 he represented Bridport; and from that time till 
his death, leaving the liberal party with whom he had 
hitherto acted, he was a zealous supporter of conservative 
principles. 

In his professional capacity he showed cause against the 
rule for filing a criminal information against Colonel Draper 
in May 1806, for a libel on Mr. Sullivan; but did not appear 
for him on his trial in June 1807 ; though he did in the 
subsequent proceedings against the colonel for the libel on 
Colonel FuUarton. In the meantime he had been ap- 
pointed one of the king's Serjeants, and recorder of Guildford ; 
and in Michaelmas 1813 he was selected as solicitor-general 
to the Prince of Wales, then Regent; succeeding in 1816 to 
the attorney-generalship to his royal highness. With that 
prince he was a great favourite ; and by the royal patronage 
he became successively chief justice of Chester, and a judge 
of the King's Bench ; the latter promotion taking place in 
December 1818. He was knighted in the following June. 

After sitting in that court rather more than five years he 
was advanced in April 1824 to the head of the Court of 
Common Pleas, from which in five years more his increasing 
infirmities obliged him to retire in June 1829. By the con- 
tinuance of royal favour he was then raised to the peerage as 
Baron Wynford, the title being taken &om an estate he had 
purchased in Dorsetshire; and at the same time he was 
appointed a deputy speaker of the House of Lords. In that 
House and in the privy council he took his due proportion of 



12 WILLIAM DRAPER BEST. George IV. 

labour In the judicial business, as often as his violent attacks 
of the gout enabled him to attend. In the debates he strenu- 
ously opposed the reform bill through all its stages ; and was 
always found in opposition to the party who supported it. 
He lived for sixteen years after his retirement, and died at 
his seat called Leesons in Kent on March 3, 1845. 

Lord Wynford's countenance, though not handsome, was 
very attractive. It indicated great cordiality and good 
humour, with much intelligence ; but it dso showed some- 
thing of a hasty temperament. As an advocate he was fluent 
if not eloquent, acute if not learned, and his zeal for his 
clients left no means untried for ensuring their success. 
Sometimes in the ardour of his exertions he would disturb 
the dignity of his court, and excite the temper of the chief 
justice. But he was a favourite not only with his colleagues 
at the bar, but also with the attorneys and the litigating 
public ; and consequently commanded a large business both 
in the Common Pleas and on the circuit. As a judge he was 
apt to form hasty and questionable opinions, and when pre- 
dding at Nisi Prius, to lean in his summing up so much 
to one side that he was nicknamed the '^ judge advocate." 
Though he was remarkable for the clearness and terseness 
of his decisions, he was considered by the profession as an 
indifferent judge, and brought himself into bad odour, as 
well by the political bias he often displayed, as by his occa- 
sional irritability and intemperance on the bench. His dispo- 
sition as a man was essentially kind, amiable and charitable. 

He married very early in life Mary Anne, the daughter 
of Jerome Knapp, Esq., of Haberdasher's Hall, London ; 
and had by her ten children. The title is now borne by his 
son, the second baron. 



1820—1830. JAMES BUEEOUGH. 13 

BOLLAND, WILLIAM. 

B. E. 1829. 
See under the Reigns of William IV. and Victoria. 

BOSANQUET, JOHN BERNARD. 

Just. C. P. 1828. 
See under the Reigns of William IV. and Victoria. 

BURROUGH, JAMES. 

Just. C. P. 1820. 

See ander the Eeign of George III. 

SiE James Bueeough was the third son of the Rev. John 
Burrough of Abbotts- Ann in Hampshire^ in which county 
and in Wiltshire he possessed considerable property. He 
was bom in 1750, and showing great ability as a youth, his 
father determined on bringing him up to the legal profession. 
Being admitted a member of the Inner Temple in February 
1768, he was called to the bar of that society in November 
1773 ; having previously practised for a short time as a 
special pleader. Joining the western circuit, he gra- 
dually acquired a good share of business, and was par- 
ticularly noticed for his profound knowledge as a sessional 
lawyer. In 1792 he was appointed a commissioner of 
bankrupts ; and was so able a master of that branch of the 
profession, that Lord Eldon, when chancellor, always men- 
tioned him with respect, and frequently consulted him on its 
practical points. To his lordship's estimation of his intelli- 
gence and worth he owed his ultimate elevation. 

In the meantime he was selected in 1794 by the Earl of 
Badnor as his deputy in the recordership of Salisbury ; ^ and 
afterwards became recorder of Portsmouth; both which 
appointments he held till he was advanced to the bench. 

> Hoare*8 South Wilts.; City of SalUboiy, 712. 



14 JAMES BUBBOUGH. George IV. 

That event did not occur till May 1816, when he was sixty- 
six years of age. He was then constituted a judge of the 
Common Pleas, in the place of Sir Charles Abbott removed 
to the King's Bench ; and knighted. He had been elected 
a bencher of his Inn in 1808. 

As a judge he held a distinguished rank. To his legal 
knowledge he added patience and strict impartiality ; and he 
was particularly esteemed for the kindness and simplicity of 
his demeanour. He was apt to deal in apophthegms ; one of 
which was, " Public policy is an unruly horse, which if a 
judge unwarily mounts, ten to one he is run away with." ^ His 
mode of illustration too was especially quaint. He once ad- 
dressed a jury thus : " Gentlemen, you have been told that the 
first is a consequential issue. Now, perhaps you do not know 
what a consequential issue means ; but I dare say you under- 
stand nine-pins. Well then, if you deliver your bowl so as 
to strike the front pin in a particular direction, down go the 
rest : just so it is with these counts ; knock down the first, 
and all the rest will go to the ground ; that's what we call a 
consequential issuej*^ ^ 

When he had attained the age of seventy-idne he was 
obliged by his infirmities to apply for his discharge, which he 
obtained at the end of 1829. His life was prolonged till 
March 25, 1839 ; and his remains were deposited in the 
Temple Church. His daughter Anne, his only surviving 
child, erected a monument to his memory in the church of 
Laverstock near Salisbury. 

COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON, Lord Lyndhurst. 

M. B. 1826. Lord Chancellor, 1827. 

See under the Reigns of William IV. and Victoria. 

* Lord Campbeirs Chancellors, iv. 666, n. * Law Mag. ill 299. 



1320—1830, ROBERT DALLAS. 15 

DALLAS, ROBERT, 

Ch. C. p. 1820. 
See under the Keign of George IIL 

The father of Robert Dallas was a gentleman of the same 
name living at Kensington in Middlesex^ and his mother 
was Elizabeth^ daughter of the Kev. James Smith, minister 
of Kilbemey in Ayrshire. Educated with a view to the 
legal profession he became a member of Lincoln's Inn, and 
trained himself to public speaking at the debating society 
held at Coachmaker's Hall, according to the common practice 
of the time. This was of considerable advantage to him 
when he was called to the bar, and enabled him to produce 
his arguments with much more ease to himself and with 
greater effect to the court. With the gentlemanly address 
that distinguished him he was noted as one of the most 
elegant and accomplished orators in Westminster Hall. 

He soon acquired considerable practice both in London 
and on the circuit. In January 1788, he was engaged 
in the defence of Lord George Gordon, who was prosecuted 
for two libels, and sentenced to imprisonment in Newgate, 
where he died.^ He next appears as one of the counsel for 
Mr. Hastings, the trial of whose impeachment lasted seven 
years, from 1788 to 1795, and highly distinguished himself 
by his exertions, and by his polished addresses to the lords. 
Naturally disgusted with the inveteracy of Burke against 
his client, he gave the relentless prosecutor no credit for 
patriotic feelings, but attributing his attacks to the innate 
malignity of his nature, composed this bitter epigram : — 

" Oft have we wonder'd that on Irish ground 
No poisonous reptile has e'er yet been found : 
Reveal'd the secret stands of Nature's work — 
She sav'd her venom to produce her Burke." ' 

' State Trials, 3uuL 231. ^ Lord Campbell's Chief Justices, iu. 132. 



16 ROBERT DALLAS. Gborqb IV. 

At the termiuation of the trial in 1795 Mr. Dallas received 
a silk gown : and through all the succeeding years till he 
was raised to the Bench the latter volumes of the State 
Trials record his efforts either for the defence or the prose- 
cution.^ Among these his speech on the motion for a new 
trial in the case of General Picton was separately published. 
In the meantime he had obtained a seat in the House of 
Commons, where he represented St Michael's, Cornwall, 
in 1802, and afterwards the Scotch boroughs of Kircaldy, 
&c. Though not a frequent he was an efficient speaker on 
the side of the government. In 1804 he was promoted to 
the chief justiceship of Chester, and presided there till 1813 ; 
when on May 4 he was appointed to the office of solicitor- 
general, and knighted. Six months afterwards he was raised 
to the Bench of Common Pleas, on November 5, 1813, 
succeeding Sir Vicary Gibbs who was made lord chief 
baron. 

In October 1817 he was selected as one of the four judges 
in the special commission for the trial of the Luddites at 
Derby; and most ably summed up the evidence in that 
against Thomas Turner. Sir Vicary Gibbs had in the 
meantime become lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, 
but resigning his seat in 1818, Sir Bobert Dallas was chosen 
as his successor on November 5. He presided in the court 
for five years with acknowledged ability and universal 
respect. It was his fortune to be named on another special 
commission in 1820 for the trial of the Cato Street conspi- 
rators ; his summing up of the one which he conducted 
being remarkable for fairness and perspicuity.^ 

A curious question having been raised in 1823, whether 
the lord lieutenant of Ireland had the same power to confer 
knighthood after the union, which he undoubtedly possessed 

> State Trials, xxvil-xxxi. ' Ibid,, xzxil 1 101, zzxiiL 1135. 



1820— lS3a BOB£BT GIFFOBD. 17 

before that measnre had passed^ a meeting of the judges was 
held in June at Chief Justice DaUas's^ to consider the point ; 
when they were of opinion unanimously that the act of 
union did not deprive him of his former privil^e, and that 
the knights created by him were knights throughout the 
world. It was a matter of some specuhition how the right 
should have remained undisputed for above twenty years, 
during which it had been frequentiy exercised, and only 
now be impugned ; and it was suspected that the doubt was 
invented for the purpose of mortifying Lady Morgan, who 
had offended the ministers by the fireedom of her writings, 
and whose husband had received an Irish knighthood.' 

At this time his health b^an to break, and he soon found 
he could no longer undergo the fatigues of his office. He 
therefore resigned his seat at the end of 1823, and was suc- 
ceeded by Lord Gifford. He lived litde more than one 
year longer, and died on December 25, 1824. He lefl 
several children by his wife, Charlotte, daughter of Lieut, 
CoL Alexander Jardine. 

ELDON, EARL OF. See J. Scott. 
GARROW, WILLIAM. 

B. E. 1820. 
See under the Reigns of Greorge m. and William IV. 

GASELEE, STEPHEN. 

Just. C. F. 1824. 

See ander the Reign of William IV. 

GIFFORD, ROBERT, Lord Giffobd. 

Ch. C. p. 1824. M. R 1824. 

The extraordinary capacity and the early success of Lord 
Gifford gave the promise of a most splendid career, which 

' Lady Morgan's Memoirs, u. 172. 
VOL. IX. C 



18 BOBEBT GIFFOBD. Geobos IV. 

there was every appearance of being realized, when he was 
snatched away at the early age of forty-eight, a martyr to 
the anxieties and mental labours of the high position to 
which he had already been elevated. The commencement 
of his life bore a striking similarity to that of Lord King, 
chancellor to George I. and II. The fathers of both carried 
on the same general business of grocer and linendraper, 
residing in the same city, and some say in the same house ; 
and though Robert Gifford was not doomed like Peter King 
to pursue for some time his father's business, he had to go 
through the drudgery of an attorney's office for many years, 
before he was allowed to enter into that path which to a 
mind constituted like his was sure to lead to distinction. 

Robert Gifford was bom at Exeter on February 24, 1779. 
From his earliest youth he showed remarkable quickness, 
and an ardent desire of improvement. His greatest delight 
was to attend the assizes and watch the proceedings of the 
courts ; and he longed for an opportunity to emulate the 
talents he witnessed. Though his £Either could not afford to 
educate him for the bar, he so far encouraged his taste for 
the profession as to article him to Mr. Jones, a respectable 
attorney of his native city, with whom he served the whole 
of his time. Here he not only well grounded himself in the 
elementary knowledge of law, but made himself so practi- 
cally useful in the business of the office, that during the 
illness of his master, he was entrusted with its sole manage- 
ment. So ready was he in solving legal intricacies, so sound 
was his advice, so able was he in conducting causes, that his 
fellow-citizens were loud in their admiration and prophesied 
for him a glorious future. Before the end of his clerkship 
his father died, and at its termination, prompted by his early 
aspirations, he entered himself at the Middle Temple in 
1800. After a year or two's study under Mr. Robert 
Bayley and Mr. Godfrey Sykes, eminent special pleaders. 



1820—1830. ROBERT GIFFORD. 19 

he commenced practice for himself In the same line, in 
Essex Court in the Temple. For five years he pursued 
this useful branch with considerable success, and thus well 
prepared was called to the bar on February 12, 1808, being 
then twenty-eight years old. 

He joined the Western circuit, and the Exeter and Devon 
sessions, where, as much by the solidity of his learning, and 
his care and vigilance in the conduct of the cases entrusted 
to him, as by his local connection, he soon acquired an ex- 
tensive business. In London too his abilities were soon 
recognised, and many opportunities occurred in which he 
distinguished himself by his intimate acquaintance with the 
law of real property, by the ready cogency of his arguments, 
and by his easy elocution. His modest demeanour and 
unaffected manners secured the friendship of his competitors 
at the bar ; and with the favour of Lord Ellenborough, 
which he soon attracted, and the patronage of Chief Justices 
Sir James Mansfield and Sir Vicary Gibbs, his early pro- 
motion might with certainty be foretold. 

He had been only nine years at the bar when that pro- 
motion was attained, by his being appointed solicitor-general 
on May 9, 1817. So entirely did he owe it to his pro- 
fessional merit, that many of those advocates who were 
opposed to the government acknowledged its propriety. He 
was then knighted and elected bencher of his Inn, and took 
his place in the House of Commons as member for Eye in 
Suffolk. On that stage, though not acting a prominent part 
in politics, he assisted the government by the dexterity he 
displayed, and by the clearness with which he explained 
their legal measures. He had been in his office little more 
than a month before he was called upon to take part In those 
state prosecutions rendered necessary by the treasonable 
practices of the time. His summing up of the case of 
James Watson for high treason, which failed from the 

C 2 



20 ROBERT GIFFORD. Geobge IV. 

infamous character of one of the witnesses, was greatly 
admired ; as were his speeches on the part of the crown in 
the following October on the trials of the Luddites^ under 
the special commission at Derby, where all the prisoners 
who were tried were convicted. The talent he displayed 
on these occasions at once dissipated all doubts upon the 
propriety of his promotion. In July 1819 he succeeded to the 
office of attorney-general, and, holding it at the commence- 
ment of the reign of George IV., it fell to his lot in April 
1820 to conduct the prosecution of Arthur Thistlewood 
(one of the persons acquitted with James Watson) and the 
other conspirators who were implicated in the Cato Street 
plot for overturning the government, intended to be com- 
menced by th^ assassination of all the ministers at a 
cabinet dinner. All the prisoners were convicted, and some 
of them suffered the just punishment for their crime.* In 
the same year he had the more arduous duty imposed upon 
him of opening the charges against Queen Caroline in 
support of the preamble of the Bill of Pains and Penalties ; 
his comparative failure in which was amply redeemed by 
his powerful reply, which in the most perspicuous manner 
collected all the facts and corroborative evidence into one 
focus, and to the satisfaction of most unprejudiced minds, 
made clear and evident the guilt of that unfortunate lady. 
But few, though they could not shut their eyes to her mis- 
conduct, approved of the proceedings ; and the outcry was 
so great at the harshness and impolicy of the measure, that 
the ministers were obliged to withdraw the bilL The tem- 
porary popularity of the queen soon subsided, and her death, 
which was hastened by chagrin, occurred soon after the 
coronation in the next year. - 

Exercising his office with great moderation he instituted 
very few prosecutions, and principally confined himself to 

> State Trials, xxxii. 538, &c. xxxiii. 716, &c. 



1820~1830» ROBEBT GIFFORD. 21 

his forensic duties in Chancery, to which court he had 
removed on being appointed solicitor- general. Here he 
obtained very considerable practice, which was greatly in- 
creased after the lamentable death of Sir Samuel Romilly. 
In the House of Lords also he had the principal lead, 
especially in the appeals from Scotland, having carefully 
made himself master of the laws of that country. As 
recorder of Bristol, to which he had been elected on the 
resignation of Sir Vicary Gibbs, he was such a favourite 
with the corporation, that they placed his portrait, a whole 
length by Sir Thomas Lawrence, in their Town Hall. 

After filling the oflSce of attorney-general for four years 
and a half, he was on the retirement of Sir £obert Dallas 
raised to the bench on January 9, 1824, as lord chief justice 
of the Common Pleas; and was ennobled on the 31st of the 
same month by the title of Lord GifFord of St. Leonard's in 
the county of Devon. This elevation to the peerage he 
owed to the alteration then adopted in the House of Lords 
in the hearing of appeals ; and he was constituted at the 
same time deputy speaker for the special purpose of hearing 
those from Scotland. So satisfied were the Scottish lawyers 
with his decisions, that on a visit to Edinburgh a short time 
after he was received and invested with extraordinary 
honours. In less than three months he changed his judicial 
post for the more appropriate one of master of the Kolls, to 
which, on the death of Sir Thomas Plumer, he was removed 
on April 5. The increase of labour consequent on these 
appointments at length weighed upon his spirits, and so 
greatly affected his health and strength, that he succumbed 
to a bilious attack on September 4, 1826, at Dover where 
he was spending his vacation. His remains repose in the 
Bolls chapel. 

At the time of his premature death he was only in the 
forty-eighth year of his age. He was then the universally 



22 BOBEBT GBAHAM. Oeoegr IY. 

designated heir to the chancellorship upon the expected resig- 
nation of Lord Eldon, who consoled himself on the prospect 
of having so able a successor. But he was not permitted 
thus to complete the parallel with Lord Chancellor King. 
Lord Tenterden^ as well as his noble predecessor in the 
King's Bench and the two chief justices of the Common 
Pleas already adverted to^ had the highest opinion of him ; 
and, in reference to tho long-talked-of vacancy in Chancery, 
wrote : " The present attorney-general (Giflford) will probably 
be his (Lord Eldon's) successor ; he is a sound lawyer, and 
a sound-hearted man .... the fittest man living to succeed 
one for whom a successor must soon be found, — ^though 
perhaps an equal will never be."* High as was his pro- 
fessional character, in private life he was equally to be 
admired. Unaffected, amiable, kind and indulgent, he se- 
cured the affection of numerous friends, and totally disarmed 
whatever jealousy might at first have been entertained at 
his sudden advancement. 

He married in 1816 the daughter of the Rev. Edward 
Drew, rector of Willand in Devonshire ; who survived him 
till 1857. By her he had seven children, the eldest of 
whom is the present peer.* 

GRAHAM, ROBERT. 

B. £. 1820. 
See ander the Bcign of George IIL 

KoBEBT Gbaham was the son and heir of James Graham 
Esq. of Dalston in Middlesex, and was bom at Hackney on 
October 14, 1744. He was educated at Trinity College, 
Cambridge, where he took the high degree of third wrangler. 
Entering the Inner Temple in April 1766, he was called to 
the bar in due course ; and after many years' practice he was 

' Lord Campbeirs Chief Jastices, iii. 296. ' Legal Obsenrer, i. 6. 



1820—1830. ANTHONY HART. 23 

in February 1793 made attorney-general to the Prince of 
Wales in the place of Mr. Erskine ; and king's counsel in 
the April following, when he was elected a bencher of his 
Inn. In June 1800 he was raised to the bench of the 
Exchequer ; on which he sat for nearly twenty-seven years. 
He was not considered a very efficient judge ; and that 
his previous reputation as a lawyer was not very high> 
appears from Sir Edward Law's remark when he was ap- 
pointed, *^ that he put Mr. Justice Rooke upon a pinnacle." 
His principal distinction was his equanimity of temper. So 
great was his politeness and urbanity to every one, that Jekyll 
said of him, "no one but his sempstress could ruffle him." 
His dignity must have been somewhat disturbed by an 
unlucky accident which befel him at Newcastle, whfle judge 
of assize there, and which was made the subject of a humour- 
ous song from the pen of Mr. John Shield, to be found by 
the curious in Dr. Bruce's interesting *' Handbook to 
Newcastie-upon-Tyne." He resigned in February 1827. 

HART, ANTHONY. 

V. C. 1827. 

A NATIVE of St. Kitts' in the West Indies, this highly 
respectable lawyer was bom about the year 1754. He was 
educated in England at Tunbridge School ; and was brought 
up to tiie legal profession. Having passed through his 
curriculum he was called to the bar in 1781, and practised 
throughout his life in the courts of Equity. Sound as a 
lawyer, clear in his statements, fluent if not forcible in his 
language, and industrious and painstaking for his clients, he 
obtained, both before and after he received a silk gown, a 
very considerable share of business. He laboured before the 
Equity judges with indomitable perseverance for forty-six 
years, before his extensive legal knowledge gained him pro- 



24 GEORGE SOWLET HOLBOTD. Geobge IV. 

motion; but at the end of that time in May 1827, he was 
selected to succeed Sir John Leach as vice-chancellor of 
England. His merits were then so much better appreciated, 
that on the retirement of Lord Manners in the following 
October, he was raised to the lord chancellorship of Ireland. 
One of Lord Norbury's innumerable jokes was made on this 
appointment : '^ That the government had treated the Irish 
with their wonted injustice; — deprived them of what they 
needed, and ^ven them what they already possessed, — taken 
away Manners, and gave them Heart^ 

His judgments were much admired, and his character was 
plain, unostentatious, and kind. He gave such universal 
satisfaction, that his removal in December 1830, to make way 
for Lord Plunkett, was a subject of sincere regret to the 
members of his court ; which was shown in a most affecting 
scene at his departure. He survived his retirement only one 
year, and died in December 1831. 

HOLROYD, GEORGE SOWLEY. 

Just. K. B. 1820. 

See ander the Beign of George IIL 

To the same stirps from which Lord Sheffield descended, 
Sir George Sowley Holroyd owed his origin; the direct 
ancestors of both, George and Isaac, being the sons of Isaac 
Holroyd of Crawcrofte in Bishworth in the parish of Elland 
in the county of York. The judge was the great grandson 
of George ; and the eldest son of another George, by Eleanor 
the daughter of Henry Sowley of Appleby, Esq., from whom 
he received one of his baptismal names. He was bom at 
York on October 31, 1758, and was sent in 1770 to Harrow 
School, then presided over by the Rev. Dr. Sumner. From 
Harrow it was intended that he should proceed to the uni- 
versity, but in consequence of his father suffering some 



1820-1830. GEOBGE SOWLEY HOLBOYD. 25 

severe losses from unfortunate speculations, the judge was 
removed from Harrow, and in April 1774 was articled to 
Mr. Borthwick, an attorney in London. At the end of three 
years he entered Gray's Inn ; and having, under the pupilage 
of Mr. (afterwards Sir Alan) Chambrd, acquired by patient 
assiduity a considerable amount of legal learning, he com- 
menced business as a special pleader on his own account in 
April 1799. 

During the eight years that he pursued this branch of the 
profession, he adopted, with Romilly, Christian, and Baynes, 
one of .the most effective preparations for the contests into 
which they were about to enter. Meeting at each other's 
chambers, they discussed legal points previously arranged; one 
of them taking the affirmative side, another supporting the con- 
trary part, and a third summing up the arguments and deciding 
the question as judge. On June 26, 1787, he was called to 
the bar, and about three months after married Sarah, the 
daughter of Amos Chaplin, Esq. ; who, after bringing him 
fourteen children, survived him for seventeen years. 

His family connections naturally led him to join the 
Northern circuit ; and the character he had acquired while 
under the bar for solidity of judgment and professional ability, 
secured to him, from the commencement of his forensic career, 
a fair proportion of business, both in the north and in West- 
minster Hall. Ere he had been called a year his name 
appears in two cases in the " Term Reports " (II. 445, 480). 
During the twenty-nine years that he remained at the bar 
his fee-book shows the rapid increase of his practice, proving 
also the advance of his reputation by the number and im- 
portance of the cases submitted to his direction. A story is 
told that, when he was forty-eight years of age Lord Kenyon 
spoke of him as " a rising young man ; " but unfortunately 
for the narrator's credit, his lordship's career was finished in 
1802, before Mr. Holroyd had attained his forty-fourth year ; 



26 6EOBGE 80WLET HOLBOYD. Gbobok IV. 

and when he had as good a practice as any junior member of 
the bar. Of a retiring disposition he persisted in declining 
the offer of a silk gown ; and therefore his merits were com- 
paratively unrecognised by the general public ; but among 
the legal community his superiority was fiilly acknowledged, 
and it was siud of him that, /' he was absolutely bom with a 
genius for law." So highly were his instructions esteemed 
that, while at the bar, no less than forty-seven pupils 
availed themselves of them, among whom were Mr. Baron 
HuUock, Mr. Baron BoUand, and Mr. Justice CresswelL In 
1811 he greatly distinguished himself in the celebrated case 
of privilege, Burdett o. the Speaker of the House of Com- 
mons, by his luminous arguments on behalf of the plaintiff 
(14 East's Reports 11). In the last years of his practice at 
the bar he was sent by the government to Guernsey, at the 
head of a commission to inquire into and determine certain 
" doleances " complained of by persons resident in that 
island. 

At length an opportunity occurring, by the death of Sir 
Henry Dampier, of raising him to a position to which his 
powers were peculiarly adapted, he was appointed a judge of 
the Eang's Bench. In that court he sat for more than 
twelve years, from February 14, 1816, to November 17, 
1828, the date of his resignation, fully sustaining the repu- 
tation he had acquired, and largely contributing to the high 
character of the bench to which he belonged, when associated 
with such erudite and discriminating judges as Lord Ten- 
terden. Sir John Bayley and Sir Joseph Littledale. His 
patience never seemed to be wearied; his amiable temper 
was never ruffled; his decisions were always clear and well- 
founded, for his memory was the storehouse of all the argu- 
ments that had ever been advanced for or against the case he 
was to judge ; and his taste, with no effort at display, was so 
exquisite that he made the driest subjects interesting. The' 



1820— 18S0. JOHN HULLOCK. 27 

infirmities which obliged him to retire^ in three years termi- 
nated his life on November 21^ 1831, at his residence at 
Hare Hatch in Berkshire. A monument is erected to his 
memory in the parish church of Wargrave, with the following 
inscription, written by Lord Brougham, faithfully and elo- 
quently describing his merite and his virtuea :- 

Sa€Bsd to thb Mxxoby 

OF 

Sm GEORGE SOWLEY HOLROYD, KNIGHT, 

ONB OF THB JUSTICES OF THB C0I7BT OF XIKO'S BBNGH. 

A lawyer to be ranked liigh among the greatest of any age. 
Endowed with an original genius to enlarge the bounds of any science^ 
But peculiarly adapted to that which he pursued; 
A Counsellor, sure, faithful, and sagacious ; 
An Advocate, learned, ready, skilful, correct;- 
A Judge, upright, firm, patient, humane ; 
Of a gentle nature, serene temper, simple and kindly manners ; 
But of principles, pure, lofty, inflexible ; 
He was not more honoured in his public capacity, 
Than beloved in all the private relations of his blameless life. 

Of the judge's fourteen children six survived him; one of 
whom is a Commissioner of the Court of Bankruptcy ; exer- 
cising the fimctions of his laborious office with the same legal 
learning, the same patience, and the same suavity of temper 
that distinguished his father. 

HULLOCK, JOHN. 

B. K 182S. 

Mr. Babon Hullock was a native of the county of Dur- 
ham, where his father, Timothy Hullock, was a master 
weaver, and proprietor of a timber yard at Barnard Castle. 
Bom in 1764, he was originally intended for the lower 
branch of the profession ; apd for that purpose was articled 



28 JOHN HULLOCK. Geobce IV. 

to an attorney at Stokesley in Yorkshire. While there, he 
grounded himself bo well in the principles of the legal 
science, that the noted barrister, Mr. Lee, whom he often 
met on his visits to an uncle, was so struck by his intelligence 
and application, that he recommended him strongly to go to 
the bar. Acting on this advice, he was entered as a student 
at Gray's Inn in May 1788 ; and, having become a banister 
in May 1794, he joined the Northern circuit. With the 
usual fate of young advocates, he was slow in his progress 
to success ; but not disheartened, he employed his time in 
laying up that store of useful knowledge which he afterwards 
turned to so good an account. In 1792 he published a valu- 
able work called ** The Law of Costs," which became quite 
an authority, and went through several editions. This made 
his name known, and necessarily introduced him to extended 
employment, which gradually increased so much that he felt 
himself warranted in accepting the degree of the coif in 
1816, from which time he filled a very high place in the 
Northern circuit. 

On this circuit his honourable feeling and his courageous 
conduct were on one occasion tried and exhibited. In a 
cause which he led, he was, particularly instructed not to 
produce a certain deed imless it should be absolutely re- 
quired. Notwithstanding this injimction, he produced it 
before it was necessary, with the view of deciding the busi- 
ness at once. It proved to have been forged by his client's 
attorney; and Mr. Justice Bayley, who was trying the 
cause, ordered the deed to be impounded, that it might be 
made the subject of a prosecution. Before this could be 
done, Mr. HuUock requested leave to inspect it ; and on its 
being handed to him, immediately returned it to his bag. 
The judge remonstrated, but In vain. ** No power on earth," 
Mr. H. replied, " should induce him to surrender it. He 
had incautiously put the life of a fellow-creature in peril; 



1820—1830. JOHN HULLOCK. 29 

and, though he had acted to the best of his discretion, he 
should never be happy again were a fatal result to ensue." 
The judge continued to insist on the redelivery of the deed, 
but declined taking decisive measures till he had consulted 
the associate judge. While retiring for that purpose, the 
deed was of course destroyed, and the attorney escaped. 

He was frequently employed by the government, and 
signalised himself by the manner in which he conducted the 
prosecutions at Manchester against Hunt and his seditious 
associates. Just before he was raised to the bench, he was 
sent with Mr. (afterwards Sir Joseph) Littledale, to Scot- 
land, to arrange some criminal proceedings of the same 
nature on the part of the crown. He met his reward on the 
resignation of Mr. Baron Wood, by being appointed on 
March 1, 1823, to fill the vacant seat in the Exchequer. 

For little more than six years he discharged the duties of 
his office in a most exemplary manner. A perfect master of 
the law, he expounded it with a liberal spirit, clearing it 
from all useless technicalities, and acting upon its plain 
intention. Firmness and mildness were equally his charac- 
teristics, and to these were united integrity, sagacity, 
and knowledge. While on the circuit he was suddenly 
seized with a severe bowel complaint at Abingdon, which 
terminated his life on July 31, 1829. His estimation 
among his colleagues may be judged from the following ener- 
getic commendation with which a brother baron spoke of 
him to a grand jury : *' He circumscribed the ocean of law 
with firm and undeviating steps." 

He succeeded to his uncle's property at Barnard Castle, to 
the poor of which he was a liberal benefactor.* 



^ Law Magazine, ii. 709. 



30 FRANCIS MASEBES. Gboboe IY. 

LEACH, JOHN. 

V. C. 1820. M. B. 1827. 

See under the Beigns of George UL and William IY. 
LITTLEDALE, JOSEPH. 

JU8T. K. B. 1824. 

See under the Reigns of William IY. and Victoria. 
LYNDHURST, LORD. See J. S. Copley. 

MASERES, FRANCIS. 

Curs. B. £. 1820. 

See ander the Reigo of George IIL 

Francis Maseres held the office of cursitor baron of the 
Exchequer for above fifty years, a period longer than any 
former cursitor baron, or indeed any other judge noticed in 
these Yolumes, has retained his place. This venerable man 
died " in harness " in the ninety-third year of his age, and 
to the last persevered in wearing the costume of the reign 
in which he was bom. No part of his long life was wasted 
in idleness, and his numerous works, legal, political, scientific, 
and literary, prove that the whole of it was profitably em- 
ployed. 

He was of a French family, which settled here on the re- 
vocation of the edict of Nantes. His grandfather was a 
colonel in the army of William III., and his father was a 
physician, resident in Broad Street, Soho, whence he removed 
to a house in Bathbone Place, which the baron afterwards 
occupied. He was bom on December 15, 1731, and after 
receiving the elements of his education at a school at King- 
ston-upon-Thames, under the Rev. Mr. Wooddeson, he 
became a member of Clare Hall in the University of Cam- 
bridge. He took his degree of B.A. in 1752 as fourth 



1820—1830. FRANCIS MASEBES. 31 

wrangler and senior chancellor's medallist; and proceeded 
M,A. in 1755, obtaining a fellowship of his college^ As 
one of the first Newcastle medallists for classics, he received 
the prize from the hands of the duke himself. 

Embarking in the legal profession, he studied in the Tem- 
ple, and having qualified himself by eating his terms, was 
called to the bar. He then was elected one of the conmion 
pleaders of the City of London, and joined the Western cir- 
cuit. Of the extent of his forensic practice there is little 
record, beyond the fact of his being present in 1764 at the 
trial of Mr. Webb, the solicitor of the Treasury, for perjury 
connected with the proceedings on the general warrants ; a 
note of which he supplied to the editor of the State Trials 
(XIX. 1172). He was sent out as attorney-general of 
Quebec, where, during the American contest, he distinguished 
himself by his loyalty. On his return to England he was, 
in August 1773, appointed cursitor baron of the Exchequer, 
on the vacancy occasioned by the death of Mr. John Tracy 
Atkyns ; the duties of which were so slight, that he added 
to them those attached to the deputy Becordership of London 
in 1779, and of senior judge of the Sheriffs' Court in 1780. 
The former of these two appointments he resigned in 1783, 
but the latter he retained till 1822. 

By his scientific and antiquarian knowledge, he was 
infinitely more conspicuous than in his legal attainments ; 
though that in the latter he was by no means deficient is 
shown by his Treatise on the power of Juries in cases of 
libel (1792), his Essay on the British Constitution (1772), 
and various other works. He was elected a fellow of the 
Boyal Society in 1771, and was also a fellow of the Society 
of Antiquaries ; contributing many learned papers to the 
Philosophical Transactions of the former, and to the Archaeo- 
logia of the latter. In other branches — historical, political, 
and theological — his publications were numerous, the list 



32 THOMAS PLUMEU. Geoboe IV. 

of them occupying nearly a column of Watt's Bibliotheca 
Britannica. 

Better than all, his memory is without stain ; and when 
he died at Reigate on May 19, 1824, his character for 
urbanity, integrity, and liberality was gracefully recorded in 
an elegant Latin inscription on a monument in the church, 
erected by his friend Dr. Fellows. He showed his attach- 
ment to the Church of England by endowing a Sunday 
afternoon sermon at Reigate.^ 

PARK, JAMES ALAN. 

Just. C. P. 1820. 

' See under the Reigns of Greor^e IIL, William IV., and Victoria* 

FAREE, JAMES {afterwards Lord Wensleydale). 

Just. K. B. 1828. 
See under the Reigns of William IV. and Victoria. 

PLUMER, THOMAS. 

M. B. 1820. 
See ander the Beign of George IIL 

Descended from an old and respectable Yorkshire family, 
Sir Thomas Plumer was the second son of Thomas Plumer, 
of Lilling Hall in that county. He was bom on October 
10^ 1753, and at eight years of age he was sent to Eton, 
where he gained, both from Dr. Dampier the head master, 
and from his schoolfellows, that character for classical ability 
and suavity of disposition which afterwards distinguished 
him at University College, Oxford. While VTilliam Scott 
(afterwards Lord Stowell) was regarded as the best tutor in 
the University, Plumer was considered one of the best 
scholars. He is represented by the Rev. T. Maurice, in his 

* Gent. Mag. xciy. (1) 569. 



1820—1830. THOMAS PLUMEB. 33 

Memoirs, " as ardent, indefatigable in his studies ; no diffi- 
culties can discourage, no pleasures allure him ; but on he 
toils with unwearied application, and must, I think, reach 
the summit of human science, if the great teacher. Death, 
does not interrupt his progress ; which seems likely, from 
his consumptive appearance." He entered the University 
in 1771, and was elected Yinerian scholar in 1777; and, 
taking his degree of B.A. in 1778, he was chosen fellow of 
his college in the next year, and proceeded M.A. in 1783. 

He had become a member of Lincoln's Inn so early as 
April 1769, but was not called to the bar till February 1778. 
Before that event took place he had the advantage of attend- 
ing Sir James Eyre on his circuits, and frequently assisting 
the judge, whose eyes were weak, in taking down the evidence 
on the trials at which he presided. This employment was of 
great benefit to him in his future practice, which was prin- 
cipally in the court of Exchequer. In 1781 he was made a 
commissioner of bankrupts; and attended the Oxford and 
also the Welsh circuits, at the end of the latter of which he 
joined in the revelry of the Horseshoe Club, instituted by 
the members for their relaxation and indulgence in all sorts 
of fun and nonsense.* He soon acquired practice, and stood 
so high in estimation that he was employed in the defence 
of Sir Thomas Rumbold at the bar of the House of Commons ; 
and there exhibited such powers that he was selected in 
1787 as one of the three counsel to defend Warren Hastings, 
his coadjutors being Mr. Law and Mr. Dallas, each of whom, 
as well as he, eventually filled high offices in the law. In 
1793 he was made a king's counsel, in which character he 
was often employed in the public trials that took place during 
the next ten or twelve years. He successfully defended 
John Reeves when absurdly prosecuted in 1797 for a libel. 
In the next year he defended Arthur O'Connor and others 

' Notes and Queries, Second Series, xiL 87, 214. 
VOL. IX. D 



34 THOMAS PLUMER. Gbobge IV. 

on a charge of high treason, one only of the defendants, 
James O'Coigley, being found guilty. In 1802 he was 
engaged in the prosecution of Governor Wall for a murder 
committed twenty years before; and in the next year 
in the prosecution of Colonel Despard for high treason; 
both of whom were condemned and executed. He was 
leading counsel in the defence of Lord Yiscount Melville in 
1806, on his impeachment by the House of Commons, and 
contended with so much success against the case of the 
managers as to procure an acquittal for his noble client on 
all the ten charges in the articles. Just before this trial, on 
March 25, 1805, he was appointed a judge on the North 
Wales circuit. He had a great reputation as a tithe lawyer; 
and had much employment before election committees. Of 
the suppressed volume called " The Book," arising out of 
the " Delicate Investigation " into the conduct of Caroline, 
Princess of Wales, in 1806, he was supposed to be, if not 
the author, at least the corrector, joining with Lord Eldon 
and Mr. Perceval as her royal highness's friends. 

In April of the next year, on the defeat of the Whig 
ministry, Mr. Plmner was appointed solicitor-general, and 
was knighted. He then entered parliament for Lord 
Radnor's borough of Downton, which he continued to repre- 
sent till he was raised to the bench. He remained solicitor- 
general for five years. Sir Vicary Gibbs being the attorney- 
general ; but he does not appear to have taken part in any 
of the numerous prosecutions instituted by the latter, except 
in the case of the Independent Whig, when he spoke for two 
hours in the House of Lords in support of the sentence pro- 
nounced against the libellers. On Sir Vicary's elevation to 
the bench Sir Thomas Plumer succeeded him on June 27, 
1812, but filled the post for less than a year, being ap- 
pointed on April 10, 1813, the first vice-chancellor under 
the statute 53 Geo. III. c. 24. After presiding in the new 



1820—1830. THOMAS PLUMER. 35 

court for nearly five years, he received another and a last 
promotion as master of the Rolls on January 6, 1818, suc- 
ceeding that eminent judge. Sir William Grant He filled 
this station till his death, which occurred six years after on 
March 24, 1824 ; when he was buried in the Rolls chapel. 

Though a deep-read lawyer, and exhibiting great powers 
and ability in his pleadings, his style was so heavy and his 
speeches of such length and elaboration, that he fatigued his 
hearers without interesting them. His estimation as a judsre 
may be seen by the mannfr in which Sir Samuel Romily, a 
sufficient authority, records in his diary Sir Thomas's ap- 
pointment to the mastership of the Rolls. While acknow- 
ledging his great anxiety to do the duties of his office to the 
satisfaction of every one, and most beneficially to the suitors. 
Sir Samuel pronounces him to be wholly incapable of dis- 
charging those duties ; and accounts for the fact that Sir 
William Grant, notwithstanding his great despatch, left an 
arrear of more than 500 causes, by stating that causes were 
set down at the Rolls for a twofold object, — that Sir William 
Grant might hear them, — and that Sir Thomas Plumer 
might not hear them. His judgments were as prolix as his 
speeches used to be ; and in allusion to them and to the 
delays attributed to Lord Eldon, this epigram was per- 
petrated ; 

^^ To cause delay in Lincoln's Inn 
Two different methods tend : 
His Lordship's judgments ne'er hegin, 
His Honour's never end." 

Though unpopular in his court his manners were most 
obliging, and his disposition most kind. His judgments too 
were so exceedingly learned and forcible, and in general 
correct, that he left a reputation of being an urbane and 
erudite, though a tedious, judge. 

He purchased Canons, the noble seat of the late Duke of 

D 2 



36 BICHARD BICHABDS. George IV. 

Chandos near Edgeware, in 1811, and added much to the 
beauty of the place. By his marriage with Marianne, the 
eldest daughter of John Turton, Esq., of Sagnal Hall in 
Staffordshire, he left several children.^ 

RICHARDS, RICHARD. 

Ch. B. E. 1820. 

• 

See nnder the Beign of George IIL 

Sib Kichabd Kichabds was the son and heir of Thomas 
Richards of Coed in Merionethshire, and Catherine sister of 
the Rev. William Parry, Warden of Ruthyn. He was bom 
at Dolgelly on November 5, 1752, and commenced his edu- 
cation at Ruthyn grammar-school. In May 1775 he entered 
the society of the Inner Temple, by which he was called to 
the bar in 1780. By his marriage in 1785 with Catherine, 
the daughter of Robert Yaughan Humphreys, he became 
possessed of the estate of Caerynwch in the same county of 
which she was the heiress. Shortly after he was appointed 
counsel to Queen Anne's Bounty of which William Stevens 
was then treasurer, and was one of the members, and ulti- 
mately president, of " Nobody's Club," instituted in honour 
of that amiable gentleman. His principal practice was in 
the court of Chancery, where from his solid legal attain- 
ments he obtained so prominent a lead that he was elected 
bencher of his Inn in April 1799. He formed an early 
friendship with Lord Eldon, and, when promoted, often sat 
for him as speaker of the House of Lords. But a long time 
elapsed before that promotion arrived ; for though he became 
successively king's counsel and solicitor-general to the queen, 
he was above sixty years old before he was appointed chief 
justice of Chester in May 1813. He went only one circuit 
in that character, being raised to the bench as a baron of the 

> Gent. Mag. xciv. 610; State Trials, xxvi. 555, 1375; xxvii. 82, 356; 
xxix. 606, 1196; xxx. 1337; Romilly*s Diary; Law and Lawyers, ii. 85. 



1820—1830. JOHN RICHARDSON. 37 

Exchequer in the following February, when he was knighted. 
From this position he was promoted to the head of the court 
in April 1817, on the death of Chief Baron Thomson. He 
presided for the next five years and a half with the reputa- 
tion, though not of a brilliant lawyer, yet of an excellent 
judge, learned in his arguments, and sound in his decisions. 
Few men have been more respected and esteemed in private 
life, so amiable and benevolent was his disposition ; yet so fear- 
ful was he that this temper might have the appearance of par- 
tiality, that when in court he was apt to assume an asperity 
of manner that was wholly opposed to his real character. 

He died at his house in Great Ormond Street on No- 
vember 11, 1823, leaving a large family, several of whom 
gained considerable eminence in their father's profession. 
His eldest son became a master in Chancery, and was for 
many years the representative in parliament of his native 
county.^ 

RICHARDSON, JOHN. 

Just. C. P. 1820. 

See under the Keign of George III. 

Sir John Richardson was the third son of Anthony 
llichardson, a merchant of London, and was bom in Copthall 
Court, Lothbury, on March 3, 1771. He commenced his 
education at Harrow, and finished it at University College, 
Oxford, where he took his degree of M.A. in 1795 ; having 
been assisted in his progress through the University by the 
benevolent aid of Mr. Stevens, the worthy treasurer of 
Queen Anne's Bounty. It is a high recommendation of his 
youthful character that he obtained the friendship of that 
excellent man at so early a period, and that he retained it 
throughout his whole career. He aided his patron in pro- 
curing the repeal of the penal statutes against the episcopal 

I Gent. Mag, Jan. 1824; Life of Stevens (1859). 



38 JOHN RICHARDSOy. Gbobgb IV. 

clergy of Scotland ; and was highly instrumental in forming 
a club to Mr. Stevens's honour, called " Nobody's Club," 
from the pseudonym under which that gentleman's various 
writings were published. The club still exists, and has 
numbered among its members men the most famous in lite- 
rature, theology, and law. 

Having been entered at Lincoln's Inn in June 1793, he 
practised as a special pleader for several years, and was not 
called to the bar till June 1803. In the very next year he 
appeared as counsel for William Cobbett, who was defendant 
in an action brought by Mr. Plunkett ; and again for him 
when indicted for publishing a libel against the lord lieu- 
tenant and lord chancellor of Ireland, which was written by 
Mr. Justice Johnson of that country. He also soon after 
argued ably, though unsuccessfully, in support of the plea 
filed by tiiat judge against the jurisdiction of the court of 
King's Bench ; and afterwards on his trial in that court.^ 

Joining the Western circuit, both there and in Westminster 
Hall he soon established such a character for industry and 
legal learning as secured to him competent encouragement. 
When to this was added experience and observation, he ob- 
tained the laborious and responsible office of adviser to the 
attorney and solicitor-general, commonly denominated their 
" devil." So efficient did he prove himself in this capacity, 
and so universally acknowledged were his superior attain- 
ments, that on the elevation of Sir Kobert Dallas to the chief 
justiceship of the Common Pleas in November 1818, he was 
selected with the approbation of all to supply the vacant 
seat in that court; and in June following he was knighted. 
After filling this post with the reputation of one of the 
soundest lawyers of the time, he was compelled by ill health 
to retire from its labours in May 1824. He lived nearly 
seventeen years after his resignation, several of which he 

> State Trials, xxix. 1, 53, 394, 423. 



1820—1830. JOHN SCOTT. 39 

spent in Malta, where he composed a code of laws for that 
island. He died at his house in Bedford Square on March 
19, 1841. 

That excellent judge Sir John Coleridge describes him in 
a lecture he delivered in 1859, as "a thoroughly instructed 
lawyer, an accomplished scholar, and a man of the soundest 
judgment, — a tender-hearted. God-fearing man.'' * 

SCOTT, JOHN, Earl op Eldon. 

LOBD CHANa 1820. 

See under the Reign of George IIL 

The able and interesting " Life " of this eminent nobleman, 
by Mr. Horace Twiss, of which Lord Campbell's, in the 
" Lives of the Lord Chancellors," is little more than a full 
abridgment, intermixed with depreciating and rather sneering 
comments, renders an additional memoir almost a work of 
supererogation ; which, were it consistent with the plan of 
this collection, I would gladly relinquish. Necessity compels 
me to make the attempt, and admiration and reverence join 
in giving me pleasure in the task ; confining myself, however, 
to such facts and incidents as may sufficiently illustrate his 
lordship's extraordinary career, and as may induce others to 
emulate his exertions; that career and those exertions 
affording another proof that, however humble in birth or 
poor in prospects, merit is the best recommendation, and 
will ever secure success to the persevering aspirant. 

Passing over the questionable descent of the family from 
the Scotts of Balweary, it is enough to begin with the 
chancellor's grandfather, William Scott of Sandgate in 
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, who exercised the trade of a ^* Fitter " 
of coals, and was the owner of several " keels." His son 
William pursued the same occupation, was a freeman of 

» Park's Life of Stevens; Gent. Mag. July 184K 



40 JOHN SCOTT. GKORqs IV. 

Newcastle, and member of the Hoastman's Company there, 
which .consisted of the first tradesmen in the place. He 
married twice, and by his second wife Jane, the daughter of 
Henry Atkinson of Newcastle, he had thirteen children, 
the fourth of whom, and eldest son, William, became Judge 
of the High Court of Admiralty, and was created Lord 
Stowell in 1821 ; and the eighth of whom, and third and 
youngest son, was John Scott, whose history is now to be 
related. 

John Scott was bom in Love Lane, Newcastle, on June 
4, 1751. He was first sent to the Royal Grammar School 
there, where he made great progress under his excellent 
master, the Rev. Hugh Moises. The anecdote book, which 
he wrote late in life for the amusement of his grandchildren, 
contains many of his adventures while there, and the flog- 
gings inflicted upon him, which in this delicate and efieminate 
age would be called indecent and cruel. In May 1766, his 
father, who had intended to bring him up to his own business, 
was persuaded to send him to Oxford by his eldest son 
William, who had by this time become fellow and tutor of 
University College. There he was instructed under the 
tuition of his brother, and was elected to a Fellowship in 
July 1767. He took his degree of B.A. in 1770, and in 
1771, being then under twenty, gained Lord Lichfield's prize 
for English prose, the subject being, " The Advantages and 
Disadvantages of Foreign Travel." On November 19, 1772, 
he was guilty of the apparent indiscretion of running away 
with Elizabeth, daughter of Aubone Surtees, Esq., a banker 
at Newcastle ; and though the couple were quickly forgiven 
by their parents, they felt for some years the effect of their 
imprudence. The husband was, of course, obliged to give 
up his fellowship ; and, resigning his hope of a provision in 
the Church, to support himself and his wife on the very 
small provision made for them. 



1820—1830. JOHN SCOTT. 41 

Adopting the law as his alternative, he entered the Middle 
Temple on January 28, 1773, and in the following month 
took his degree of M.A. During his three years of proba- 
tion he spent no more time in London than was necessary 
for the keeping of his terms, but was employed in assisting 
his brother as tutor at University College, and in acting as 
deputy Vinerian Professor to Sir Robert Chambers. While 
so engaged, he pursued his legal studies with so much 
perseverance and energy, that his health was seriously 
endangered ; rising every day at four in the morning, and 
reading at night with a wet towel round his head to prevent 
him from falling asleep. At the end of 1775 he removed to 
London with his family, now increased by an infant son, and 
took up his abode in Cursitor Street. He had the advantage 
of spending the interval before his call to the bar in the 
office of Mr. Duane, where he acquired a perfect knowledge 
of conveyancing. That of pleading he obtained with no 
other instruction than naturally resulted from his own 
industry in copying precedents. On February 9, 1776, he 
was called to the bar, and removed into Carey Street ; and 
in November following his father died. Though by that 
event his circumstances were slightly improved, his business 
for some time gave hiTn no addition. In the first year his 
whole receipt amounted to half a guinea ; and though he 
went the Northern circuit, few briefs were entrusted to him. 
But he made friends with the leaders, and gained some 
experience by observing how they managed their causes. 
He at first attended the common law courts, but soon 
fancying that Lord Mansfield did not encourage young 
lawyers who were not educated at Westminster and Christ- 
church, Mr. Scott left the King's Bench, and joined the 
Chancery Bar, then not exceeding twelve or fifteen in 
number. 

There his progress was so little encouraging, that he had 



42 JOHN SCOTT. Gbobos IV. 

almost determined to retire to his native town as a provincial 
counsel, and had even taken a house there, not without hope 
of being elected recorder in the event of a vacancy. His 
prospects, however, were materially altered by a decision 
which Lord Thurlow pronounced in the case of Ackroyd v. 
Smithson, in accordance with an argument which he had 
made, against not only the opinion of Sir Thomas Sewell, 
the master of the Kolls,^ but even contrary to the expecta • 
tions of his own client. He soon after had the good fortune, 
by one of those accidents which occasionally happen, to be 
very suddenly engaged as leading counsel in the Clitheroe 
election case, for which he had but four hours to prepare. 
He exhibited so much ability, that Sir James Mansfield and 
Mr. Wilson, both afterwards judges (the former by Mr. 
Scott's procurement), strongly encoun^ed him to remain in 
London, the latter ofiering to ensure him 40021 the next 
year. From that time his success was no longer doubtftd in 
Westminster Hall ; and his practice on the circuit, which it 
was then the custom of Chancery men to attend, was equally 
increased, aided by some important causes in which he had 
the good luck to lead and to be triumphant. At Carlisle, 
however, he had no business till, by the absence of another 
counsel, he was engaged to defend an old woman for an 
assault, and suceeded by a joke in getting her off with only 
nominal damages. This immediately procured him briefs to 
the amount of seventy guineas, where he had not received 
one for seven years before. He had now taken up his 
residence in Powis Place ; and afterwards removed to No. 
42 Gower Street, where he lived about thirteen years before 
he went to Bedford Square. 

He was a favourite with Lord Thurlow, who proved his 
friendship by purposely refusing him a commissionership of 
bankrupts, and thus forcing him to work. Though his 

* Brown's Chanc. Cases, i. 505 j 2 Jarman's Powell, 77 etseq. 



1820—1830. JOHN SCOTT. 43 

business and reputation increased rapidly, he did not owe his 
first promotion to his lordship's favour ; but received it from 
the lords commissioners of the Great Seal appointed on 
Lord Thurlow's first resignation, in the form of a Patent of 
Precedence, on June 4, 1783 ; when he was elected a 
Bencher of his Inn. In the same month he was, through 
Lord Thurlow's recommendation, elected member for Lord 
Weymouth's borough of Weobly. In the succeeding session 
of parliament Mr. Fox brought forward his famous East 
India Bill, which Mr. Scott strenuously opposed, and the 
defeat of which was the dismissal of the coalition ministry. 
The storm that followed ended in a dissolution; Mr. Scott, 
in the new parliament, again represented Weobly, and soon 
acquired such an ascendency by his arguments in support of 
Mr. Pitt's ministry, as even to compel Mr. Fox's admiration 
and respect. 

In March 1787 he was appointed Chancellor of Durham 
by Lord Thurlow's brother, the bishop ; and in June of the 
next year he was selected by Mr. Pitt to succeed Sir 
Archibald Macdonald as Bolicitor-general, in the legal 
changes that resulted from the resignation of Lord Mansfield. 
He kissed hands, and was knighted on the 27th of the month. 
One of his first duties on the reassembling of parliament, 
was to support the measures consequent on the king's 
illness, in the performance of which he so greatly signalised 
himself, that he received the king's personal thanks. 

So high was his reputation at this time, and so extensive 
his practice, that he was enabled in 1792 to invest 22,000/. 
in the purchase of Eldon, an estate in the southern part of the 
county of Durham, and to devote the whole of its rents to its 
improvement. From this estate he afterwards took his first 
title of nobility. Early in the next year (February 1 3, 1 793), 
in the midst of the anxieties consequent upon the French 
Revolution, he succeeded to the office of attorney-general. 



44 JOHN SCOTT. Gbobob IV. 

and upon him devolved the difficult duty of concerting and 
carrying into effect the measures necessary to counteract the 
seditious principles that were then too prevalent in this 
country. Revolutionary agitators formed themselves into 
associations^ which, under the pretence of seeking a reform 
in parliament, had more serious objects in contemplation, 
tending to the deposition of the king. To repress these 
was the great object of the minister ; and to this end it was 
determined to prosecute the leading instigators. The subse- 
quent trials of Hardy, Home Tooke, and Thelwall, who, 
by the eloquence of Erskine and the learning of Gibbs, 
narrowly escaped conviction for high treason, succeeded in 
satisfying the public of the danger of these societies, and 
eventually in putting a stop to the seditious agitation ; and 
Sir John Scott, though much abused by one party for his 
attempt to establish what they termed " constructive treason," 
was as much applauded by the other for the energy and 
learning, humanity and courage, with which he conducted 
the several prosecutions. Before, however, the agitation had 
subsided, it became necessary to 'introduce bills for further 
security in this and the succeeding parliament of 1796 ; to 
which he was returned for Boroughbridge instead of Weobly. 
The preparation and support of these measures devolved 
principally on the attorney-general, as well as several 
prosecutions for seditious writings and other political 
offences. 

In July 1799, his official labours terminated by the death 
of Sir James Eyre, chief justice of the Common Fleas, to 
which office he claimed the right of succession. It was 
accorded to him on two conditions ; one, by Mr. Pitt, that 
he should accept a peerage, so that his services in parliament 
might not be lost ; and the other, by the king, that he 
should not refuse the Great Seal when he should be called 
upon to accept it. The second Act of Parliament, before 



1820--1S30. JOHN SCOTT. 45 

adverted to in the Survey of the reign of George III., was 
accordingly passed, enabling him to be made a serjeant in 
the vacation. The ceremony took place on July 16 ; he 
was sworn of the Privy Council on the 17th ; on the 18th 
he received his patent as Baron Eldon ; and on the 19th he 
was appointed Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. 
Though he held that office less than two years, he more than 
fulfilled the expectations of those who could appreciate his 
powers. In the exercise of his judicial functions he ex- 
hibited none of the doubt and hesitation which were ascribed 
to him in his subsequent career ; but both before and after 
the death of his colleague, Mr. Justice Buller, he sustained 
the high character of his court by his excellent decisions. 

When Mr. Pitt resigned, on the subject of the Catholic 
question. Lord Eldon, in performance of his promise to the 
king, accepted the Great Seal on April 14, 1801 ; but, 
owing to the temporary illness of his majesty, did not 
resign the chief justiceship till May 21 ; discharging the 
duties of both offices during the interval. Before the close 
of the year he was appointed High Steward of the University 
of Oxford, of which his brother. Sir William Scott, was at 
that time the representative in parliament. During the 
ministry of Mr. Addington and his successor, the chancellor 
was treated with the utmost confidence by the king, whose 
occasional attacks of illness gave great embarrassment to the 
government, which were not diminished by the differences 
which existed between the Prince of Wales and his father. 
On Mr. Pitt's resumption of power in 1804, Lord Eldon 
was continued in his office, and retained it till the death of 
that great minister, on January 23, 1806, which made way 
for Lord Grenville's and Mr, Fox's ministry, called ^* All the 
talents." He then, on February 7, resigned the Great 
Seal into the hands of Lord Erskine. 

Ere fourteen months were expired that administration was 



46 JOHN SCOTT. Geobok IV. 

dismissed on the Catholic question, and Lord Eldon resumed 
his seat as lord chancellor on April 1, 1807. He held it 
undisturbed for the next twenty years under the premierships 
of the Duke of Portland, Mr. Perceval, and Lord Liverpool — 
a period pregnant with the most important events in the 
political and domestic history of the country. The malicious 
attack upon the Duke of York ; the duel between Lord 
Castlereagh and Canning, causing the break up of the Duke 
of Portland's ministry ; the negotiations following, and the 
pluck of Mr. Perceval in undertaking the premiership ; all 
occurred during the first three years, and naturally occasioned 
him much anxiety, which was not diminished by Lord Gren- 
ville's defeating him by about a dozen votes in the contest for 
the Chancellorship of Oxford. But he found comfort in his 
disappointment in the conviction that had the Duke of Beau- 
fort, who stood upon the same interest, retired as at first 
was intimated, he would have had a triumphant majority 
over his political rival. 

In November 1810, the parliament opened without the 
usual commission, the king being visited by an attack which 
prevented him from affixing the sign-manual, and which un- 
fortunately could not be subdued as the former one had been, 
but lasted for the ten remaining years of his life. This led 
to a renewal of the conflicts of 1788-9, relating to the restric- 
tions to be put upon the regency, in the conduct of which 
Lord Eldon was treated with the bitterest acrimony by Lord 
Grey and the expectant ministers. The prince regent not 
only, to the surprise of the whigs, kept the tories in office 
during the year limited for the restrictions imposed upon 
him, but, to their infinite disgust and disappointment, still 
continued to repose his confidence in the old ministers when 
that year had expired. Lord Eldon was thus confirmed in 
his position, but had to submit to the attacks in the House of 
Commons of Michael Angelo Taylor on the alleged delays 



1820—1830. JOHN 8C0TT. 47 

in the Court of Chancery, and in the appeals in the House 
of Lords. A more serious visitation soon followed in the 
assassination of Mr. Perceval the prime minister hj Belling- 
ham, on May 11, 1812. This had nearly broken up the 
ministry ; but the negotiations with the whig party failing, 
the prince regent was compelled, not unwillingly, to go on 
with them ; and the glorious successes of the British arms 
under the Duke of Wellington, which led to the restoration 
of the Bourbon king to France, established them firmly in 
the confidence of the country. In the corn-law riots of 
1816, the mob broke into Lord Eldon's house in Bedford 
Square, and he himself narrowly escaped by retiring into 
the garden of the British Museum ; returning thence, not 
with " a band of fifty chosen men," but with a corporate guard 
of four, he drove back the mob, showing the greatest bravery 
and presence of mind, and capturing two of them with his 
own hands. In the same year Bonaparte's escape from 
Elba obliged the government to make extraordinary efforts, 
leading to the crowning victory of Waterloo, and resulting 
in Bonaparte's delivering himself up to England, and his 
final detention in the island of St. Helena. 

On the death x>f George III., on January 29, 1820, the 
prince regent as king for the third time placed the Great 
Seal in the hands of Lord Eldon. In the following month 
he escaped assassination by the timely discovery of the Cato 
Street conspiracy to murder all the ministers at a cabinet 
dinner given by Lord Harrowby. Soon after followed the 
queen's trial, in which his conduct as speaker of the House 
of Lords was the subject of unmixed praise ; and he was so 
fully convinced from the evidence produced that she was 
guilty of the crime charged in the preamble to the bill, that 
he moved the second reading in a powerful speech. Though 
the bill was prudently withdrawn, the queen's temporary 
popularity soon subsided, and was not restored by her 



48 JOHN SCOTT. Qbobge IV. 

unadvised and unsuccessful attempt to take part in the 
king's coronation. Previous to that solemnity the king 
insisted, much against Lord Eldon's inclination, on promoting 
him to a higher rank in the peerage, and he was accordingly 
created Viscount Encombe and Earl of Eldon on July 7, 
1821 ; the viscounty being named from his estate in 
the Isle of Purbeck in Dorsetshire, purchased by him in 
the year 1807, where he spent all his vacations. 

For the first seven years of the new reign Lord Eldon 
retained his place under the same prime minister. Lord 
Liverpool; no otherwise disturbed in his political feelings 
than by the pressure of the Catholic claims, and the gradual 
advance of radical opinions. He was, however, personally 
annoyed by the captious attacks that were annually made 
upon him and his court in the House of Commons, by those 
who, seeing the powerful influence he exercised in the state, 
were desirous of forcing him to resign. But these attacks 
produced the contrary effect, and prompted him boldly to 
repel them, and to refrain from insisting on a retirement 
which for several years he had repeatedly pressed upon the 
government, but which, at one time from the representations 
of his colleagues that his secession would break up the 
ministry, and at another from the personal solicitation of the 
king, he had been induced to withdraw. When, however. 
Lord Liverpool was seized with an affliction which terminated 
his political existence, and the government was re-organised 
under Mr. Canning, Lord Eldon felt that he could no longer 
continue as the colleague of a minister who adopted opinions 
with respect to the Catholic question in direct opposition to 
those he had himself all along advocated. He therefore, on 
April 30, 1827, resigned the Seal, which he had holden for 
the space of a quarter of a century, minus little more than a 
month. His successor was Lord Lyndhurst. 

At the time of his retirement he was in the seventy-sixth 



1820—1830. JOHN SCOTT. 49 

year of his age, but he did not then wholly withdraw from the 
political world. During many of the eleven years that he 
survived he took an active but ineffectual part in opposing 
the numerous innovations that were introduced into the 
legislature. To his strictly conscientious, if mistaken, 
feelings, the repeal of the Test and Corporations Acts, the 
Emancipation of the Catholics, and the Reform Bill, were 
peculiarly distressing. He saw nothing that would result 
from the two latter but the most calamitous effects upon the 
constitution ; and during the time he lived after them he had 
not much reason to alter his opinion. The former of them 
only led to new demands from the Catholic agitators ; and 
amidst the various mischiefs and partialities of the latter of 
them, the solitary benefit it conferred was the shortening the 
period of elections. He looked with scarcely less disgust at 
the various speculative alterations in the law that were from 
time to time propounded. He had removed from Bedford 
Square to Hamilton Place, and there and at his mansion at 
Encombe he continually resided, with occasional journeys to 
his property in Durham. His life terminated on January 
13, 1838, in Hamilton Place, by a gradual decay of bodily 
strength, but in the preservation of his intellect and spirits 
to the last. His remains were removed to Encombe for 
interment in the family vault which he had built at Kingston 
for the reception of Lady Eldon, whom he lost in 1831, 
after a union of fifty-nine years. 

Living in the reigns of five successive sovereigns, one the 
longest in the annals of England, enjoying high oflice in the 
state for the long period of fifty years, it would have been 
a miracle if, whatever were his deserts, he should wholly 
have escaped censure. But even the small party which 
delighted to attack him were obliged to acknowledge his 
superior merits. They admitted his eminent talents, his 
extensive learning, the wonderful readiness of its applica- 

VOL. IX. E 



50 JOHN 8GOTT. Gboboe IV. 

tion^ and the justice of his decisions. They could not deny 
his patience in listening to the arguments of counsel^ his 
courteousness to the bar, and his conciliatory demeanour to 
all : but they charged him with a habit of doubting every- 
thing, and attributed to it all the delays of the court of 
Chancery. This disposition to hesitate was a judicial defect^ 
with which he was undoubtedly chargeable ; but the most 
candid and best informed of his adversaries in politics could 
not help allowing that it arose from an over anxiety to do 
strict justice to the litigants. The epigranunatic turn of the 
following lines shows how his slowness was estimated in 
comparison with the " quick injustice " of his vice-chancellor 
Sir John Leach : 

" In Equity's high court there are 
Two sad extremes, 'tis clear ; 
Excessive slowness strikes us there, 
Excessive quickness here. 

Their source, 'twixt good and evil, brings 

A difficulty nice ; 
The first from Eldon's virtue springs. 

The latter from his Vice:' 

This habit of dubitation was grossly exaggerated solely for 
party purposes. A hope was entertained by his political 
antagonists that the personal annoyance he suffered would 
induce his resignation, and the consequent defeat of the 
ministry of which he was one of the main supports. Few 
indeed were the cases in which they could make their charge 
good ; and he not only justified, but continued the practice, 
upon the principle that extreme care to give a right decision 
prevented not only the annoyance and expense of appeal in 
the case before him, but also future Utigation on the same 
class of subjects. The consequences were such as he anti- 
cipated; and the judgments of Lord Eldon are not only 
treated with the greatest respect, but regarded as of the 
highest authority. There is little justice in attributing to 



182O-1830. JOHN SCOTT. 51 

him the delays of his court and the increase of arrears, since 
the complaints were mere repetitions of the same outcry 
which had been heard against the court of Chancery for 
hundreds of years, — aggravated by the increase of population 
and the spread of commerce, both necessarily leading to a 
multiplication of litigation to an immense degree. Eyen with 
the stupendous exertions of Lord Eldon, and they exceed^ 
those of any former chancellor, he could not with the most 
extraordinary despatch keep pace with the perpetual advances 
made upon the list of causes set down for his hearing ; and 
it was at length found necessary to give him assistance in 
clearing off some of the arrears by appointing a vice-chancellor. 
To this proposal the most violent opposition was raised by 
the adverse party; yet they themselves, when they came 
into power, added four more judges to the same court, 
namely two additional vice-chancellors and two lord justices 
of appeal ; thus proving the injustice of their attack upon 
Lord Eldon, and acknowledging that the business of the 
court could not be despatched by the efforts of a single indi- 
vidual. 

Of his profound knowledge and superior excellence as a 
judge it is not surprising that the testimony of such men as 
Mr. Charles Butler, Lord St. Leonard's, Lord Lyndhurst, 
and a host of others, should be expressed in the strongest 
terms; but that his principal opponents. Lord Brougham, 
Sir Samuel Bomilly, and more of the same party, at the 
very moment of their attack, should speak of him in the 
same eulogistic manner, proves the universal acknowledg- 
ment of his merits. Without being brilliant as an orator his 
speeches were highly effective from his reasoning powers, and 
without being remarkable for wit he had a great deal of 
quiet humour, and was peculiarly happy in his retorts and 
repartees. By the courtesy of his demeanour, Ijy the solidity 
of his judgment, and by the straightforward consistency of 

s 2 



62 WENSLEYDALE LORD. Geobge IV. 

his conduct, he acquired the respect of the peers, among 
whom, while he presided, he gained the utmost ascendency. 
By the bar and the oflSicers of his court he was beloved 
beyond any other head ; and in his private life he was the 
kindest and most amiable of men. None who had the 
happiness of being connected with him, or the privilege of 
practising under him, but must regard his memory with 
affection and veneration ; and as he was to the last hour of 
his life, so he will be for the time to come, recognised as the 
unflinching supporter of the constitution. 

Of his six children two daughters only survived him ; one 
of whom married George Stanley Repton, Esq., and the other 
the Rev. Edward Bankes. His eldest son, John, left a son, 
who succeeded his grandfather as second earl, upon whose 
death his son, also John, became the third and present earl. 



SHADWELL, LANCELOT. 

V. C. 1827. 

See under the Reigns of William IV. and Victoria. 

TENTERDEN, LORD. See C. Abbott. 

TINDAL, NICOLAS CONYNGHAM. 

Ch. C. p. 1829. 
See under the Reigns of William IV. and Victoria. 

VAUGHAN, JOHN. 

B. R 1827. 

See under the Reign of William IV. 
WENSLEYDALE, LORD. See J. Paeke. 



1820—1830. GEORGE WOOD. 53 

WOOD, GEORGE. 

B. E. 1820. 
See under the Reign of George III. 

Mr. Baron Wood was a native of Roystone, near Barnsley 
in Yorkshire, his father residing as the clergyman there. He 
was bom in 1740, and being intended for the junior branch 
of the legal profession was articled to Mr. West, an attorney 
at Cawthome. He was so assiduous in his studies and 
showed so much ability during his articles, that at the end 
of them his master urged him to try his fortune at the bar. 
This advice he fortunately took, and, coming to London he 
pursued the usual course of preparation at the Middle 
Temple, and commenced as a special pleader on his own 
account. He soon got into full practice, and established 
such a reputation that pupils flocked to him. Among them 
he gave the initiatory instructions to Mr. Law, afterwards 
Lord Ellenborough, in 1773, to Mr., afterwards Lord Erskine, 
in 1779, and to Mr. Abbott, afterwards Lord Tenterden, in 
1787, besides many others of the most eminent lawyers of 
the day. So great was his celebrity as a master of the 
science, that when he was called to the bar he was engaged 
on the part of the crown in all the state prosecutions com- 
mencing in December 1792. He joined the northern circuit, 
and was as successful in his practice in the country as he 
was in Westminster Hall. 

Two stories are told of which he was the hero. On pro- 
ceeding in a post-chaise to join the circuit with Mr. Holroyd, 
they were addressed by a gentleman of fashionable appear- 
ance, who begged to know ^' What o'clock it was." Mr. 
Wood politely taking out a handsome gold repeater to 
answer the question, was immediately met by the presenta- 
tion of a pistol to his breast, and a demand of the watch, 
which of course he was obliged to resign to the interrogator. 



54 GEORGE WOOD. GxoBGB IV. 

The consequence was that he could never appear in court with- 
out some learned brother calling out to him, *' What's o'clock. 
Wood ? " On another occasion he was the cause of a special 
pleading joke from the bencL He had bought a horse with 
a warranty that it was *' a good roadster, and free from vice : " 
but when he attempted to leave the stables nothing could 
induce the horse to move. On hearing this evidence at the 
trial. Lord Mansfield gravely exclaimed, ** Who would have 
thought that Mr. Wood's horse would have demurred^ when 
he ought to have gone to the country f " This excellent joke, 
in the changes of the art of pleading, may possibly soon 
become unintelligible. 

A character so distinguished for legal erudition was not 
likely to be long neglected by those whose duty it was to 
supply the vacancies on the bench. Mr. Wood accordingly 
received his promotion as a baron of the Exchequer in April 
1807, and was knighted soon after. He performed his 
judicial functions for nearly sixteen years with great advan- 
tage to the community, and with all the credit to himself 
which was anticipated from his previous career. In February 
1823 he resigned his seat to Mr. Serjeant Hullock, and lived 
little more than a year afterwards. His death occurred on 
July 7, 1824, at his house in Bedford Square; and he was 
buried in the Temple Church. 

He printed for private circulation some valuable " Obser- 
vations on Tithes and Tithe Laws ; " discussing the subject 
with great shrewdness and ability. This treatise was after- 
wards published, and the principle he recommended for the 
arrangement of the charge was partially adopted in the bill 
for the commutation of tithes.^ 

WYNFORD, LORD. See W. D. Best. 

> State Trials, xxii.-xxix.; Law and Lawyers, i. 29, 142; Lord Campbeirs 
Ch. Just. ilL 100, 270; Chancellors, vi. 387; Gent. Mag. Aug. 1824, p. 177. 



55 



WILLIAM IV. 

Reigned 6 years, 11 months, and 25 dajs ; from June 26, 1830, 

to Jane 20, 1837. 



SURVEY OF THE REIGN. 

During this short reign the tide of reform set in, and over- 
whebned alike the legal and poKtical world. Whether for 
evil or for good this is not the place to inquire, it being only 
necessary in these pages to notice the actual changes which 
were introduced into the legal community. Though some of 
them were crude and inoperative, failing from hasty or 
undigested legislation, others were of substantial benefit. 
Commissions for the inquiry into and reformation of the 
practice in the courts of law and equity, resulted in the 
recommendation and subsequent adoption of some amend- 
ments in both, by which useless incumbrances were annihi- 
lated, and legal proceedings, before unnecessarily obstructive 
and expensive, were simplified; tending as much to the 
relief of professional men as of the public, who were also 
benefited by the increased facility given to them of 
enforcing their rights and recovering their debts. 

The first great change in the constitution of the common 
law courts was the appointment of an additional judge to 
each of them ; a measure rendered necessary by the great 
increase of business coming before them. One of the earliest 
Acts which received the royal assent (called 11 Geo. IV. 
and I. Will. IV, c. 70, and passed July 23, 1830) regulated 



56 LEGAL CHANGES. Williax IV. 

the arrangement consequent upon the alteration, and provided 
for the salaries and retiring allowances of the new judges. 
In the following Michaelmas they took their seats, in defiance 
of the superstitious feeling that had once prevailed of there 
being something sacred in the number twelve. 

By the same Act the precise date of the commencement 
and close of the different terms (some of which were before 
dependent on movable feasts) were definitely fixed, by 
declaring that 



Hilary Tenn 
Easter Term 
Trinity Term 
Michaelmas Term 



(January 11, \ 
April 15, I and should 
oegm on May 22, | end on 
I Nov. 2, I 



^January 31, 
May 8, 
June 12, 
Nov. 26, 



with a provision for lengthening Easter term for any nimiber 
of days that should fall between the Thursday before and 
the Wednesday after Easter day ; the commencement of 
Trinity term being postponed, and its continuance being 
prolonged, for the same number of days. 

The office of a Welsh Judge was by the same Act 
abolished, and the jurisdiction was transferred to the judges 
of the courts of Westminster. 

A new court for administering and distributing the estate 
and effects of bankrupts was created by stat. 1 & 2 Will. IV. 
c. 56, to be called the Court of Bankruptcy. Of this court 
the Honourable Thomas Erskine, K.C., was appointed the 
chief judge of review. Mr. Seijeant Pell, K.S., Mr. 
Serjeant Cross, K.S., and George Rose, Esq., K.C., were 
constituted the other judges, and were all three knighted. 
The court was opened on the first day of Hilary term, 1832.. 
Mr, Erskine continued chief justice till November, 1842, 
holding that post in conjunction with the office of judge of 
the Common Pleas, to which he was appointed in January 
1839. Previous to 1842, .Sir Albert Pell and Sir John 
Cross had died, and Sir George Rose had accepted a master- 



1830—1837. judge's SALARIES — LORD CHANCELLORS. SI 

ship in Chancery, and no successors to either of them had 
been nominated. But Mr. Erskine was succeeded in 1842 
as chief judge by Vice-Chancellor Sir James Lewis Knight- 
Bruce, who exercised all the powers of the court of Review 
till 1847, when by stat. 10 & 11 Vict. c. 102, the court was 
abolished, and its jurisdiction transferred to such of the 
vice-chancellors as the lord chancellor might name for that 
purpose. 

By stat. 4 & 5 Will. IV. c. 36, another new court, called 
the " Central Criminal Court," was established for the trial 
of offences committed in the metropolis and parts adjacent. 

By another Act (2 & 3 Will. IV. c. 116) the salaries of 
the judges as previously fixed were secured to their former 
amount, except as to the puisne judges and barons appointed 
since November 16, 1828, who, instead of 5500Z., were only to 
have 5000Z. a year. The cursitor baron was to have a 
salary of 243Z. "during the continuance of the existing 
interest therein." 

Several offices of the court of Chancery in the patronage 
and gift of the lord chancellor having been abolished by 
stat. 2 & 3 Will. IV. c. Ill, his retiring pension was by the 
same statute very properly increased to 5000Z. ; and by 
chapter 122 of the same session, a clear salary of 10,000Z. 
was assigned to him, in lieu of all fees and emoluments to 
which he had been previously entitled. 



Lord Chancellors. 

John Singleton, Lord Ltndhurst, held the Great 
Seal, as lord chancellor, for five months from the beginning of 
this reign, when on the change of ministry he resigned it ; and 

Henry Brougham, Esq., Jk king's counsel, received it 
on November 22, 1830, and was on the next day created 



58 BOLLS ~YIC£-CHANC£LLOB OF ENGLAND. WxLUAX IV. 

Lord Brougham and Yaitx* He retained it exactly four 
years ; when it was restored to 

John Singleton, Lord Ltndhubst, on November 
21, 1834. After another five months he retired with hia 
party, and 

Sib Chables Chbistopheb Pepts, M.R, 

Sib Lancelot Shadwell, Y.C, and 

Sib John Bebnabd Bosanqxtet, Just. C.P«, were 
on April 23, 1835, constituted lords commissioners of the 
Great Seal, which they retained nearly nine months, when 
it was delivered to 

Sib Chables Chbistopheb Pepts, as lord chancellor, 
on January 16, 1836, who, four days after, was created Lord 
Cottenham. For the remainder of the king's reign he 
retained the office. 

Masters of the Eolls. 

Sib John Leach, the master of the Eolls at the death 
of George lY., continued so till his own death, a little more 
than four years after. 

Sib Charles Christopher Pepys, the solicitor- 
general, was, on September 29, 1834, appointed to the office, 
which he retained till he was constituted lord chancellor. At 
the end of a year and four months, 

Henry Bickersteth, Esq., a king's counsel, then 
succeeded him, on January 19, 1836. Four days after he 
was created Lord Langdale; and was still master of the 
Eolls at the death of the king. 

Vice-Chancellor of England. 

Sir Lancelot Shadwell continued vice-chancellor 
during the whole of this reign. 



1830—1837. masters in chancery — great seal. 59 

Masters in Chancery. 

Sir John Leach, M. R. - - - - 1 to 6 Will IV. 

Francis Paul Stratford - - - - l 

John Springett Harvey, A. G. 1830-1831 - 1 to 2 — 

Samuel Compton Cox - . . . i 

James Stephen .>---.! 

John E. Dowdeswell - - - - lto7 — 

Francis Cross - - - - - lto7 — 

James Trower - - - - - lto6 — 

William TTingfield - - - - lto7 — 

James William Farret - - - - lto7 — 

Robert Henley Eden, afterwards Lord Henley - 1 to 7 — 

Giffin Wilson - - - - lto7 — 

George B. Roupell - - - - lto7 — 

Henry Martin - - - - - lto7 — 

William Brougham - - - - lto7 — 

William George Adam, A. G. 1831-1837 - 2 to 7 — 

Nassau William Senior - - - - 6to7 — 
Sir Charles Christopher Pepys, afterwards Lord 

Cottenham, M. R. - - - - 6to6 — 

Henry Bickersteth, Lord Langdale, M. R, - 6 to 7 — 

By Stat. 3 & 4 Will IV. c. 94, s. 29, called the Chan- 
eery Regulation Act, any vacancies that might occur in 
the office of six clerks, were not to be filled up till the 
number was reduced to two, such two to have all the privi- 
leges and perform all the duties theretofore had and per- 
formed by the six clerks. Various important alterations 
were also made by the same Act in reference to other offices 
in Chancery. 

An amicable dispute arose between the first two holders 
of the Great Seal. A new Great Seal is of course required 
at the commencement of a reign; and the old one, being 
first broken up, or " damasked " (a ceremony which consists 
in the king giving it a gentle blow with a hanmier), becomes 
the perquisite of the lord chancellor for the time being. The 
usual order was issued of course on the king's accession, 
when Lord Lyndhurst was chancellor, that a new Seal should 



60 king's bench. William IV. 

be made ; but the Seal itself was not finished till after Lord 
Brougham came into office. Both lords^ therefore, claimed 
the old one; Lord Lyndhurst because he was chancellor 
when the order was given ; and Lord Brougham because he 
was chancellor when the Seal was completed. The difference 
was referred to royal arbitration, when the king equitably 
decided that one of the two parts of the Seal, which is 
necessarily divided into an upper and lower to give an 
impression on both sides of the Seal, should be given to each 
lord ; and, to make his award the more gracious and palat- 
able, his majesty ordered each part to be converted into 
a splendid silver salver, with appropriate ornaments and 
devices. 

Chief Justices op the King's Bench. 

Charles, Lord Tenterden, retained the office of 
chief justice of the King's Bench for nearly two years and 
a half in this reign. On his death 

Sir Thomas Denman, the attorney-general, received 
the appointment on November 4, 1832, and kept his seat 
till the end of the reign, having been created Lord Denman 
on March 28, 1834. 

Justices op the King's Bench. 

I. 1830. June. John Bayley. 

Joseph Littledale. 
James Parke. 
Nov. 12. William Elias Tamiton, vice J. Bayley. 

John Patteson^ the fifth additional judge. 
IV. 1884. April 29. John Williams, vice J. Parke. 
V. 1836. Jan. 27. John Taylor Coleridge, vice W. E. Taunton. 

The judges of the King's Bench at the end of the 
reign were 

Lord Tenterden, chief justice, 
Sir Joseph Littledale, Sir John Williams, 

Sir John Patteson, Sir John T. Coleridge. 



1830—1837. common pleas — exchequer. 61 

Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. 

Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tyndal was Chief Justice 
of the court of Common Pleas during the whole of this 
reign. 

Judges of the Common Pleas. 

I. 1830. June. James Alan Park. 

Stephen Gaselee. 
Jolm Bernard Bosanquet. 
Nov. 12. Edward Hall Alderson, the fifth additional 

judge. 
rV. 1834. April 27. John Vaughan, vice E. H. Alderson. 
Vn. 1837. Feb. 24. Thomas Coltman, vice S. Gaselee. 

At the end of the reign the judges of the Common 
Pleas were 

Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal^ chief justice^ 
Sir James Alan Park^ Sir John Vaughan^ 

Sir John Bernard Bosanquet, Sir Thomas Coltman. 

Chief Barons of the Exchequer. 

Sir William Alexander held the office of Chief 
Baron little more than six months after the king's accession^ 
and then resigning, was succeeded by 

John Singleton, Lord Lyndhurst, late lord Chancellor, 
on January 18, 1831. In four years he was replaced in his 
former office, and 

Sir James Scarlett, who had been attorney-general 
at the beginning of the reign, was appointed chief baron on 
December 24, 1834 ; and shortly after was raised to the 
peerage as Lord Ablnger. He retained the office at the 
death of the king. 

Barons of the Exchequer. 

I. 1830. June. William Garrow. 

John Vaughan. 
William Holland. 
George Bankes^ cursitor. 



1 



62 



EXCHEQUER — CHANCERY. 



WiLUAM IV. 



Nov.ll. 
11. 1832. Feb. 13. 
IV. 1834 Feb. 28. 

April 29. 



John Bayley^ the fiftih additional barcn. 
Jobn Gumey, vice W. Gairow, 
John Williams, vice J. Bayley. 
James Parke, vice J. Williams. 
Edward Hall Alderson, vice J. Vaugban. 

At tbe death of the king the barons were 
Lord Abinger, chief baron, 
Sir James Parke, Sir Edward Hall Alderson, 

Sir William Bolland, Sir John Gumey. 

George Bankes, cursitor baron. 



Court op Chancery. 



A.R. 

1 


A.D. 


Lord Chamcbllou. 


MaSTKHS or TBB 

Rolls. 


ViCB 

Chamcbllors. 


1830. Jane 


John Singleton, Lord 


Sir John Leach 


Sir Lancelot 






Lyndhnrst 




Sbadwell 




Nov. 22. 


Henry, Lord Brougham 


— 


— 


5 


1834. Sept. 29. 


— 


Sir Charles C. 
Pepys 


— " 




Nov. 21. 


John Singleton, Lord 
Lyndharst 


— 


— 




1835. April 23. 


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<e 










pyg, M.B. 










Sir Lancelot Shad- 


•j- 










well, V.C. 


1 


^™" 


•"^ 






Sir John B. Bosan- 










quet, Ju8t C. P.J 






6 


1836. Jan, 16. 


Charles Christopher, 


Henry, Lord 


... 






Lord Cottenham 


Langdale 





1830—1837. 



COMMON LAW COUBTS. 



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64 ATTOBNET-GENEBAL8 — 8EBJEANTS. William IV. 



Attorney-Generals. 

L 1830. June. James Scarlett^ resigned. 

Nov. 20. Thomas Denman^ made Ch. K. B. 

III. 1832. Nov. 2C. William Home, resigned. 

IV. 1834. Feb. John Campbell, resigned. 
V. Dec 17. Frederick Pollock| resigned. 

1835. April 30. John Campbell. 



Solicitor-Generals. 

I. 1830. June. Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, resigned. 

Nov. 20. William Home; made attorney-general. 

III. 1832. Nov. 20. John Campbell, made attorney-general. 

IV. 1834. Feb. Charles Christopher Pepys, made M. R. 
V. Nov. 0. Bobert Monsey Bolfe, resigned. 

Dec. 20. William Webb FoUett, resigned. 

1835. May 4. Bobert Monsey Bolfe. 



Serjeant8-at-Law. 

The Inn of Court is noted by the added initial ; and an 
asterisk is placed before those who became judges. 

; I. 1830. •William EliasTaunton(L.) Vohn Patteson (L) 
•Edward Hall Alderson (I.) 

Motto, ** Nee temer^ nee timidd.'' 
George Heath. 

Motto, " Metuit qui sperat." 
n. 1832. •John Gumey (I.) •John Taylor Coleridge (M.) 

Motto, " Justo secemere iniquum.'' 
in. •Thomas Denman (L.) 

Motto, " Lex onmibus una." 
1833. •Thomas Noon Talfourd (M.) 

Motto, " Magna yis veritatis." 
IV. 1834. •John Williams (M.) 

Motto, " Tutela legum. 
V. 1836. •James Scarlett (I.) 

Motto, '^Ingenuas per artes." 
Vn. 1837. •Thomas Coltman (I.) 

Motto, " Jus suum cuique." 



1830—1837. serjeants. 65 

King's Serjeants. 

in. 1832. Robert Spankie (I.) David F. Atcherley (M.) 

H. A. Merewetlier, 

It will be seen that after the year 1833 no seijeants were 
called in this reign, except those who took the degree for the 
purpose of becoming judges. The reason was this : one of 
the contemplated reforms so abundantly projected, was the 
annihilation of the privileges of that ancient and venerable 
order ; and to carry that intent into effect a mandate dated 
April 25, 1834, under the sign-manual, but without any seal 
or signet, or the countersign of any known public officer, 
was sent by Lord Chancellor Brougham to the judges of the 
Common Pleas, declaring that the king's counsel and other 
barristers should, after the first day of Trinity term, have 
equal right of practising, pleading, and audience in that 
court with the serjeants-at-law. This mandate was acted on 
during the remainder of this reign, but not much longer. 
The mode in which it was subsequently annulled, and the 
ultimate consequences, will be detailed under the reign of 
Queen Victoria. 

A clause was inserted in the warrant directing all the 
serjeants-at-law (except the king's Serjeants, who already 
had precedence) should have permanent rank and place in 
all the courts next after John Balguy, Esq., the last appointed 
king's counsel. The Serjeants so named were : — 

Vitruvius Lawes. John Scriven. 

Thomas D'Oyly. Henry J. Stephen. 

Thomas Peake. Charles C. Bompas. 

William St. J. Arabin. Edward Goulbum. 

John Adams. George Heath. 

Thomas Andrews. John T. Coleridge. 

Henry Storks. Thomas Noon Talfourd. 
Ebenezer Ludlow. 

To this cause may also be in part attributed the increased 
number of king's counsel appointed during the remaining 

VOL. IX. F 



66 king's counsel. Wiluam IV. 

years of the reign, another court being opened to them. 
Those >vho took rank after Thomas Noon Talfourd, the last 
named serjeant, went among the wits of Westminster Hall 
bj the name of the " Post-meridians," — they were made 
" after Noon/* 

Among other reforms, the perquisites attached to the 
office of king's counsel were altogether swept away in 1830. 
They no longer were entitled as of old to a salary of 40/., to 
an annual allowance of stationery, nor to a certain number 
of bags to carry briefs. This economy on the part of the 
Government at once extinguished the custom that had 
formerly prevailed, that no barrister could carry a bag until 
he had been presented with one by a king's counsel. 

King's Counsel, 

Including ihote who had Patents of Precedence. 

John Adams (seijeant). William Erie. 

Kobert Alexander. John Evans. 

Biggs Andrews. William W. Follett. 

Thomas Andrews (serjeant). Edward Goulbum (seijeant). 

William St. J. Arabin (serjeant). George Heath (seijeant). 

John Balguy. M. D. Hill. 

Charles H. Barber. Francis L. Holt. 

John Beames. Edward Jacob. 

John Blackburn. John Jervis. 

Charles C. Bompas. D. F. Jones (Atcherley). 

William F. Boteler. Henry H. Joy. 

William Burge. Fitzroy Kelly. 

Charles Butler. Richard T. Kindersley. 

George Chilton. Vitruvius Lawes (serjeant). 

John T. Coleridge (serjeant). Ebenezer Ludlow (seijeant). 

Thomas Coltman. William H. Maule. 

Charles P. Cooper. • John Miller. 

Philip Courtenay. Basil Montagu. 

Cresswell Cresswell. Thomas Pe^e (seijeant). 

Richard B. Crowder. Thomas J. Piatt. 

Matthew Davenport. David Pollock. 

Thomas D'Oyly (seijeant). Richard Preston. 



1830—1837. 



Clifford's inn. 



67 



Francis J. N. Rogers. 

Robert M. Rolfe. 

John Scriven (serjeant). 

Henry J. Shepherd. 

John A. F. Simpkinson. 

Walter Skirrow. 

Robert Spankie. 

George Spence. 

Thomas Starkie. 

Henry J. Stephen (serjeant). 

Henry Storks (serjeant). 



Clement S. Swanston. 
Thomas N. Talfourd (serjeant). 
Henry W. Tancred. 
Christopher Temple. 
Frederick Thesiger. 
Daniel Wakefield. 
William Walton. 
James Whitmarsh. 
James Wigram. 
Philip Williams. 



Clifford's Inn. — In 1834, the court of King's Bench 
refused to grant a mandamus appKed for by Mr. Jessopp, 
calling upon Mr. Allen, the principal of Clifford's Inn, to 
attend with the rules of the society on the benchers of the 
Inner Temple, to enable them to decide whether he was 
properly elected to that Office ; because there was no sufficient 
proof that the Inner Temple had a compulsory authority 
over Clifford's Inn for this purpose.^ 

* The King ▼. Allen, 5 Barn, and AHolph. 984. 



F 2 



68 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 

OP 

THE JUDGES IN THE REIGN OF WILLIAM IV. 



ABBOTT, CHARLES, Lord Tenterden. 

Ch. K B. 1830. 
See under the Reigns of George IIL and George IV. 

Lord Tenterden, far from following the example of many 
a new-made peer by endeavouring t« trace his pedigree to 
an ancient race, gloried in his descent from parents in the 
lower ranks of life, as exemplifying the beauty of the British 
constitution, which excludes no one from its honours, and 
even opens the door of the peerage to the most humble 
individual, when merit claims an entrance. Whatever 
question there may be as to the various personal allusions he 
is reported to have made to his birth and early position, there 
is no doubt about the fact that when he was at his highest 
elevation he attended the festival of the school in his native 
city at which he imbibed the rudiments of his education, 
acknowledged the benefits he had received from its founda- 
tion, and perpetuated the memory of his connection with it, 
by founding two prizes for future aspirants. On his epitaph 
too, written by his own pen, he records himself as sprung 
^^ humillimis sortis parentibus." 

Charles Abbott was bom on October 7, 1762, in the pre- 
cincts of Canterbury Cathedral. He was the second son of 
John Abbott, who carried on a respectable business as a 
wigmaker and hairdresser, and was well reputed among his 



1830—1837. CHARLES ABBOTT. 69 

fellow-citizens. His mother was Alice, only daughter of 
Daniel Bunce of the same city. At the age of seven he 
entered the grammar-school there, called, from its foundation 
by Henry VIII., the king's school, where by his industry 
and cleverness he gave such satisfaction to his master. Dr. 
Osmond Beauvoir, and to the reverend trustees of the 
cathedral, that he received one of the exhibitions granted by 
the school on his admission into Corpus Christi College, 
Oxford, in March 1781, where he immediately obtained a 
scholarship. At Oxford he distinguished himself by gaining 
the only two honours which the university then bestowed, 
the chancellor's medals for Latin and English compositions. 
The subject of the former (in 1784) was " Globus -^rosta- 
ticus," the novelty of Lunardi's balloon occasioning the 
thesis ; — and that of the latter (in 1786) " The Use and Abuse 
of Satire," an essay so much admired for its learning and rea- 
soning that it was afterwards published.' Having taken his 
degrees he was rewarded with a fellowship in his college, 
and became sub-tutor under Dr. Burgess, afterwards Bishop 
of Salisbury. Soon after he was selected as the private 
tutor of Mr. Yarde, the son of Mr. Justice BuUer ; and that 
sagacious judge, seeing and appreciating his talents, recom- 
mended him to devote his attention to the legal instead of 
the clerical profession. Fortunately following this counsel 
he entered himself at the Middle Temple on November 16, 
1787. This society he changed in May 1793 for that of the 
Inner Temple, by which he was ultimately called to the bar. 
In the meantime for the purpose of acquiring a practical 
knowledge of the working of the law, he attended for some 
months the office of Messrs. Sandys & Co., attorneys in 
considerable business, and then placed himself under Mr. 
(afterwards Baron) Wood, the leading pleader of that day, 

' This is erroneously attributed by Watt, in his Bibliothcca Britannica, to the 
Right Hon. Charles Abbot, afterwards Lord Colchester. 



70 CHARLES ABBOTT. Wiluam IV, 

in whose chambers so many eminent lawyers acquired their 
first insight into legal knowledge. Subsequently Mr. 
Abbott selected the same department for his own commence- 
ment ; and for several years devoted himself to this branch 
of the science with so much success, that in July 1795 he 
was enabled to take the important step of marrying. His 
bride was Mary, daughter of John Lagier Lamotte, Esq., of 
Basilden in Kent, with whom in domestic union of uninter- 
rupted felicity he passed the whole remainder of his life. 
His call to the bar was in the following February. 

He had acquired such a reputation as a special pleader for 
soundness of law, sagacity in his advice, and accuracy as a 
draughtsman, that no sooner did he assume the barrister's 
gown than he was employed as junior counsel for the crown 
in all the numerous state prosecutions for the next ten years, 
under the attorney-generalships of Lord Eldon, Lord Redes- 
dale, Lord EUenborough, and the Hon. Spencer Perceval.* 
During that interval he was elected recorder of Oxford in 
1801. His practice also in the Oxford circuit and in London 
progressed with great rapidity, and was materially increased 
by the publication in 1802 of a work, which he undertook 
at the suggestion of Lord Eldon, on ^^ The Law Relating to 
Merchant Ships and Seamen." This treatise was praised by 
all jurists, and at once became the standard book and prac- 
tical guide on the subject. It raised Mr. Abbott's reputation 
so high, and consequently brought him such an accession of 
employment in commercial and maritime cases, that when 
an income-tax was imposed in 1807 he returned his profes- 
sional receipts during the previous year at 8,026/. 5s. 

With such an income as this it is not surprising that he 
should have declined in 1808 to accept the offer that was 
made him of a seat on the bench, when Mr. Justice 
Lawrence was removed into the Common Pleas. Neither 

* State Trials, xxiv.-xxix. passim. 



1830—1837. CHABLES ABBOTT. 71 

• 

would he be tempted to apply for the honour of a silk gown, 
conscious that his temperament and disposition disqualified 
him as a leader, and that his services as a junior would be 
more usefully employed and in greater requisition than if he 
aimed at the higher grade. But after eight years more of 
laborious but profitable application, he felt that his health 
would not bear the continued strain upon his faculties, and 
that he could with prudence accept the comparative relief of 
a judgeship. On the death therefore of Mr. Justice Heath, Mr. 
Abbott was raised to the vacant seat in the Common Pleas 
on January 24, 1816, receiving the customary honour of 
knighthood. 

He remained in that court little more than three months, 
removing on May 3, very unwillingly but at the urgent 
solicitation of Lord EUenborough, to the court of Kipg's 
Bench as the successor of Sir Simon Le Blanc. His excel- 
lence In a judicial character was so prominent that when 
Lord EUenborough resigned two years and a half after, he 
was elevated to the chief justiceship on November 4. 1818. 
That he was not raised at the same time to the peerage as 
his three predecessors had been, was to him rather a recom- 
mendation than a slight, both his modesty and his prudence 
forbidding him to aspire to it. But when, after having con- 
tinued in the office for nine years, and established his fame 
by the exemplary manner in which he fulfilled its duties, 
the royal wish was intimated to him, he felt that he could no 
longer hesitate to accept the proffered honour. He was 
accordingly ennobled by the title of Baron Tenterden of 
Hendon in Middlesex on April 30, 1827. 

Soon after this elevation his health began to decline, and 
his infirmities were increased by his anxious exertions to 
contend with the growing business of his court. He be- 
trayed no diminution of mental energy, and so far from 
shrinking from judicial duties he died almost in harness; 



72 CHABLE8 ABBOTT. William IV. 

being seized with his last illness while sitting on the third 
day's trial of the mayor of Bristol, for misconduct at the 
riots in that city. He immediately took to his bed, from 
which he never rose, but died on November 4, 1832, exactly 
fourteen years since he was constituted chief justice. He 
was buried in the Foundling Hospital, and on his monument 
is a modest inscription written by himself. 

Various attempts have been made to analyse Lord Ten- 
derden's mind and character, and a great deal of ingenuity 
and eloquence have been expended in the endeavour. All 
allow that both were peculiarly fitted for the judicial office. 
In his practice at the bar and in his opinions in answer to 
cases he exhibited less of the advocate than of the arbitrator. 
It was not till he was raised to the bench that his full powers 
were brought into play. There he soon proved himself one 
of the ablest judges that ever presided. He was peculiarly 
a common-sense judge. Complete master of every branch 
of law, strictly impartial and unprejudiced, and detesting 
anything that approached to quibbling, he applied himself to 
discover the justice of the case before him, and by his clear 
and perspicuous explanations most commonly led the jury to 
a right conclusion. Severe against everything that had the 
semblance of fraud or conspiracy, he was particularly so if 
an attorney was implicated ; but to the respectable members 
of the profession he showed marked respect and urbanity. 
If he occasionally exhibited impatience at the long speeches 
and irrelevant arguments of counsel, it should be remembered 
that it was occasioned by his anxiety to clear away the ac- 
cumulation of business, the extent of which may be estimated 
by the fact that when Lord Mansfield had to dispose of only 
200 causes at a sitting, the number had increased in Lord 
Tenterden's time to above 800 : but as a significant proof of 
the estimation and respect in which he was held by his bar, 
notwithstanding the rebukes sometimes administered, they 



1830—1837. EDWARD HALL ALDERSON. 73 

paid him the unusual compliment of attending in a body his 
introduction as a peer into the House of Lords. 

As a member of that house he carefully avoided all party 
politics, but vrfth high Tory principles opposed any attempted 
innovation on the constitution. He spoke against the repeal 
of the Test and Corporation Acts, the Koman Catholic Relief 
Bill, and the several bills for reform in parliament, as dan- 
gerous speculations and not likely to produce the benefits 
which their advocates prophesied. In his own department 
he introduced and carried several useful measures, and to his 
care and diligence the legal profession is mainly indebted for 
the statutes 9 Geo. IV. c. 14 and 15, for the limitation of 
actions, and for the prevention of a failure of justice by rea- 
son of a variance between records and writings produced in 
evidence ; and also for the statutes 2 and 3 Will. IV. c. 39, 
for uniformity of process. 

It is pleasing to find that the relaxations of a mind so 
overburdened with the labours of a judicial life should be 
in botanical researches and in literary pursuits. The union 
of these in him produced some elegant Latin verses of great 
classical merit, in the composition of which he amused the 
little intervals of leisure during the latter portion of his life ; 
as in his earlier years he had penned some graceful English 
trifles. 

His was a truly domestic home. His wife survived him. 
only six weeks. Of his four children, John Henry, the 
eldest son, is the present peer.* 

ABINGER, LORD. See J. Scarlett. 

ALDERSON, EDWARD HALL. 

Just. C. P. 1830. B. E. 1834. 

See ander the Reign of Victoria. 

" Townsend*s Twelve Judges, ii. 234; Jardine's Life, in Biog. Diet , Soc. 
Usefal KnowL See also Lord Campbeirs Chief Just. iii. 248. 



74 WILLIAM ALEXANDER. WiUJAH IV. 



ALEXANDER, WILLIAM. 

Ch. B. E. 1830. 
See ander the Reign of George IV. 

This worthy and respectable judge was of Scottish birth 
and extraction. His residence was at Airdrie in the county 
of Lanark. He was bom about the year 1761, and at the 
age of twenty-one was called to the bar of the Society of the 
Middle Temple. Selecting the Court of Chancery he prac- 
tised there with a high reputation as an equity and real pro- 
perty lawyer for nearly twenty years, and was in 1800 re- 
warded with a silk gown. Having formed a friendship with 
Lord Eldon, that nobleman, soon after he became lord 
chancellor for the second time, appointed him on Novem- 
ber 9, 1809, one of the masters in Chancery. After filling 
this comparatively subordinate office for about fifteen years 
he was, to the surprise, and somewhat to the dissatisfaction, 
of the profession, all at once by the same patronage raised 
to the head of the Court of Exchequer ; being constituted 
lord chief baron on January 9, 1824, and was thereupon 
made, a privy counsellor and knighted. He himself hesitated 
to accept the appointment when offered, being aware of his 
limited acquaintance with criminal law and the practice of the 
common law courts. But notwithstanding his own doubts, 
and those entertained by the legal world in general, he pre- 
sided most ably for seven years, his experience in equity, 
which then formed a great part of the business of his court, 
being peculiarly valuable. 

In January 1831 he was induced to resign, for the pur- 
pose of enabling Lord Lyndhurst, who had given up the 
Great Seal, to take his place as lord chief baron. About 
the same time he had a large accession to his fortune from 
the discovery of iron ore on his estate at Airdrie. He sur- 



1830—1837. JOHN BAYLEY. 75 

vived his retirement more than twenty years, and, dying on 
June 29, 1842^ was buried in the Chapel of Koslin Castle.^ 



BAYLEY, JOHN. 

Just. E. K 1830. B. E. 1830. 
See under the Reigns of George HI. and George IV. 

No judge since the act was passed in 1799 granting a pen- 
sion on retirement after fifteen years' service has declined to 
avail himself of the privilege for so long a period as Sir John 
Bayley. He occupied the bench for no less than twenty-sis 
years with the highest reputation as a lawyer, and undimi- 
nished respect and esteem from every one who acted either 
with or under him. The author of these pages, who is old 
enough to have advised with him when a sergeant, has been 
a witness of his whole subsequent career, during which he 
never heard one word to his disparagement. 

He was bom on August 3, 1763, at Elton in Huntingdon- 
shire, the residence of his father, John Bayley, Esq. His 
mother was Sarah the daughter and heir of the Rev. White 
Kennett, Prebendary of Peterborough, and granddaughter of 
Bishop Kennett of that see. He was educated at. Eton 
under the superintendence of his father's elder brother. Dr. 
Edward Bayley, fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and 
rector of Quinton and Courtcenhall ; to whose cultivation 
of his taste and talents for classical composition, the judge 
always ascribed his future success in life. The Musae Eton- 
enses contain some favourable specimens of his proficiency. 
Though he was nominated in 1782 for King's College, Cam- 
bridge, we have the authority of the accurate Messrs. Cooper 
of that place for saying that he never was matriculated.^ 

He entered Gray's Inn in November 1783, but was not 

^ Gent. Mag. Sept. 1842, pp. 390, 450. 
' Notes and Queries. Third Series, i. 474. 



76 JOHN BATLET. William IV. 

called to the bar till June 22^ 1792. In the interim he pro- 
bably practised as a special pleader, as in 1789 he published 
the " Summary of the Law of Bills of Exchange," &c., 
which has ever since been the standard work on the subject, 
and of which many editions have been issued. He also 
edited Lord Raymond's Reports, with valuable notes, in 
1790. The fame he acquired by these publications natur- 
ally insured him, when he became a barrister, ample employ- 
ment, which did not diminish when he was raised to the degree 
of the coif in 1799. About this time he was elected recorder 
of Maidstone. After successfully pursuing his profession as 
a Serjeant both on the Home Circuit and in Westminster Hall, 
he was appointed in May 1808 a judge of the King's Bench, 
on the resignation of Sir Soulden Lawrence; and was 
knighted. 

There his peculiar adaptation for the judicial oflSce was at 
once seen, and his professional erudition soon placed him in 
the first rank. Though his quickness of apprehension en- 
abled him to see the true bearings of a case, he was always 
open to conviction, and most patient in listening to the argu- 
ments raised by counsel, in opposition to his opinion. None 
who has attended the courts can forget the seven little red 
books which he always carried with him, to which he could 
instantaneously turn for every reported case. The ease and 
delight with which he got through his work at Nisi Prius 
caused M. Cotte, the French advocate, to exclaim, *^I1 
s'amuse a juger." * In this court he sat for more than 
twenty-two years, for seventeen of which he held the next 
place to the chief justice, pronouncing the judgments of the 
court upon delinquents with characteristic mildness. But at 
length he found the increasing labour too much for him ; but 
still was willing to undertake a lighter duty. He therefore 
took advantage of the act authorising the appointment of a 

^ Lord Campbeirs Ch. Just. ii. 397. 



1830— 1837, JOHN BAYLEY. 77 

fifth judge in each court, and on November 14, 1830, was 
removed into the Court of Exchequer as the additional 
baron ; taking his place however according to his seniority 
next to the chief baron. 

Great must have been his gratification on the day of his 
leaving the King's Bench to be publicly addressed by Mr. 
Brougham, in the name of the bar, in such cordial terms as 
these: — "My Lord, I am directed by the bar to express 
their very deep feeling of regret — ^however complete and 
unbounded their confidence may be in the residue of the 
court — that they should be deprived of a judge whose con- 
summate learning, great integrity, and uniform courtesy, have 
given them the most perfect satisfaction and delight for a 
long series of years. At the same time they cannot fail to 
remember that it has been owing to a kind of deference to 
their expressed wishes eight years ago, that this painful 
separation — this tearing asunder of ties so dear — has been 
deferred so long." ^ 

On the new stage of the Exchequer he played the same 
prominent part for above three years more, when his advanc- 
ing age prompted him to retire, before his mental powers 
decayed. He therefore resigned the position he had so long 
graced in February 1834 ; receiving in the next month the 
well-merited honour of a baronetcy; and an opportunity 
being given him of still serving the state in the character of 
a privy counsellor. He survived nearly twelve years, and 
died on October 10, 1841, at the Vine House, near Seven- 
oaks. 

Few men in his prominent position ever passed through 
life with such unmingled respect. He had all the requisites 
of a good judge ; clearness of intellect, integrity of purpose, 
urbanity of manner, strict impartiality, and a total absence 
of political bias. He was a favourite with all classes ; his 

> Law MagaziDC, v. 252. 



78 HENRY BROUGHAM. WnxXiiM IV. 

colleagues on the bench^ the advocates over whom he ruled^ 
and the litigants, whether he decided for or against them. 
Amiable and benevolent in his private life^ he was deeply 
impressed with religious feelings, which were manifested in 
an edition of the Common Prayer Book published by him 
in 1816. 

By his wife, Elizabeth, daughter of John Markett, Esq., 
of Meopham Court in the county of Kent, whom he married 
in 1790 and lost in 1837, he left, besides three daughters, three 
sons, the eldest of whom now enjoys the title ; the second is 
a clergyman ; and the third a barrister, who edited one of 
the editions of his father's work on Bills. 



BICKERSTETH, HENRY, Lord Langdale. 

M. R. 1836. 

See under the Reign of Victoria. 




BOLLAND, WILLIAM. 

B. £. 1830. 

See under the Reigns of George'IV. and Victoria. 

BOSANQUET, JOHN BERNARD. 

Just. C. F. 1830. Com. G. S. 1835. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and Victoria. 

BROUGHAM, HENRY, Lord Brougham and Vaux. 

LOBD CHAVa 1830. 

Of Lord Brougham it has been sarcastically said that if he 
had a little law he would know something of every science. 
Even supposing the ignorance thus maUciously inferred could 
possibly be true of one who has spent above sixty years in 
the study and practice of the law, thirty as a successful 
barrister, four as Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, and the 
remainder as an active judge in the highest court of appeal. 



1830—1837. HENRY BROUGHAM. 79 

it is palpably evident that no biographer, be he ever so good 
a lawyer, can hope to give a satisfactory life of the noble 
lord, without having somewhat more than a superficial 
knowledge of the several branches of science, of which in the 
above caustic sentence he is acknowledged to be the master. 
There is another reason why no attempt will be made in 
these pages' to give more than the leading incidents of his 
eventful career ; and that is — that he is engaged upon his 
own biography — a work which will be anxiously looked for, 
— describing, as it will undoubtedly do, the origin and im- 
pulse that led to his various studies, and the principles that 
guided him throughout all his philosophic and philanthropic 
inquiries. 

Henry Brougham, though bom in Scotland, is the repre- 
sentative of one of the most ancient families in Westmore- 
land, in whose possession the manor of Burgham, now 
Brougham, can be traced uninterruptedly from the time of 
Edward the Confessor. By the intermarriage of one of his 
ancestors with the heiress of the family of Vaux of Catterlyn, 
he also represents that noble house. Before the death of his 
grandfather John Brougham, his father resided at Edin- 
burgh, where he married Eleanor the only child of the 
Rev. James Syme by Mary the sister of Dr. Robertson 
the historian. Of that marriage the eldest son was the 
future chancellor, who was bom in St. Andrew's Square, 
Edinburgh, on September 19, 1770. 

In passing through both the High School and University 
of Edinburgh, he distinguished himself by his rapidity and 
intelligence in receiving the instruction afforded, and in the 
latter he more particularly addressed himself to philosophical 
inquiries. The first fruit of his studies was a paper ^' On 
the Inflection, Reflection, and Colours of Light," written at 
the early age of seventeen and forwarded by him to the 
Royal Society, and published in its Transactions in 1796. 



80 HENRY BROUGHAM. WitUAM IV. 

To this he added in the next year some " Further Experi- 
ments;" following these with ^^ General Theorems, chiefly 
Porisms of the higher Geometry ;" which likewise appeared 
in successive years in the same publication. These successful 
exertions in physical science led him to an intimacy with 
Sir Joseph Banks, the president, and were rewarded in 1803 
by his election as a fellow. In the meantime his pursuits 
introduced him into the best literary circles of Edinburgh ; 
where he joined the " Speculative Society," and formed the 
more select association called *^ the Academy of Physics." 
He likewise took the opportunity of visiting Norway and 
Sweden before he settled himself as an advocate in the 
Scottish law courts. Into that profession he entered with 
repugnance. In a letter to his friend Sir Joseph Banks, 
dated December 10, 1800, he expresses his aversion to it, 
and his resolution to attempt an opening in the political 
world ; but at the same time to cultivate the duties of his 
profession to secure a retreat, in case his plan should fail. 
He showed his capacity for the province he preferred by 
publishing in 1803 '^ An Inquiry into the Colonial Policy 
of the European Powers ; " and in 1806 he exhibited his first 
acknowledged effort in behalf of the persecuted blacks by 
issuing a pamphlet entitled ** A Concise Statement of the 
Question regarding the Abolition of the Slave Trade." In 
1802 he had joined with Lord Jeffrey, Sydney Smith, Homer, 
and other talented men then residing at Edinburgh, in 
founding the Edinburgh Review, which up to the present 
time, after sixty years' existence, preserves the popularity it 
obtained on its first establishment. To this he was a most 
indefatigable contributor, advocating on all occasions the 
most liberal principles, in support of which it always took so 
prominent a part. 

With an established reputation as a politician, a jurist, and 
an orator, he felt that Edinburgh was too confined a stage. 



1830—1837. HENRY BBOUGHAif. 81 

and therefore, coming to London, he became for some time 
a pupil of Mr. (afterwards chief justice) Tindal, and being 
called to the English bar in 1807 by the society of Lincoln's 
Inn, joined the Northern Circuit. His practice was less in 
the courts than in appeals to the House of Lords and the 
Privy Council, and before parliamentary committees. In 
1808 he signalised himself at the bar of the House of 
Commons, by his energetic advocacy of the application of 
the British merchants to obtain a repeal of the famous Orders 
in Council issued in opposition to the aggressions of Napo- 
leon. His earnest exertions and his overpowering eloquence 
procured him a seat in parliament in 1810 for the borough of 
Camelford. He continued a member of that House till he 
was advanced to the other twenty years later, except for four 
years from 1812, Mr. Canning having then defeated him in 
his attempt to be returned for Liverpool. In 1815 he was 
elected for Winchelsea, for which he sat till he succeeded in 
an arduous contest for the West Riding of Yorkshire, in 
1830, the year in which he was called to the House of 
Peers. 

To particularise all the incidents of his parliamentary 
career is more the province of the historian than that of the 
biographer, so wide was the range of subjects which he 
discussed. No question found him unprepared, and whether 
the debate was upon African slavery. Catholic emancipation, 
or foreign politics, or upon the more domestic questions of 
charity abuses, distress in the agricultural districts, free 
trade and the laws that restrained it, the extravagance and 
corruption of our military and civil establishments, and the 
thousand other topics that agitated that assembly, he threw 
into them all that spirit and fervour for which his speeches 
were remarkable. He soon acquired the lead of the party to 
which he was attached, and was allowed to be a most brilliant 
debater, and to be an exception to the almost universal 

YOT.. Tx. a 



82 HENRT BBOUGHAM. Wiiliam IV. 

experience^ that the eloquence of a lawyer did not succeed 
in the House of Conunons. At the same time it was admitted 
that in the warmth of his addresses he was apt to exceed the 
limits of discretion, and sometimes to injure the cause he 
was advocating. 

In his professional character he defended the Hunts, prose- 
cuted in Middlesex in 1 8 1 1 for a political libel in the Examiner, 
and they were indebted to his eloquence for their acquittal ; 
but his arguments had not the same result when addressed to 
a Lincolnshire jury in behalf of Drakard, for publishing the 
same libel. His reputation as a lawyer had so far advanced, 
aided no doubt by his political status, that he was occasion- 
ally consulted by the Princess Charlotte, and on her elope- 
ment from Warwick House in 1814, he was sununoned by 
her to her mother's house at Connaught Terrace, to which 
she had fled, and it was by his advice that she returned 
home. But the great event on which his legal fame was to 
be established in the popular mind was now approaching. 
On the accession of George IV. in 1820, his queen, from 
whom he had been long separated, determined to return to 
England to assert her rights, and summoned Mr. Brougham, 
whom she appointed her attorney-general, as her adviser. A 
bill of pains and penalties was immediately brought into the 
House of Lords, charging her with adultery committed 
abroad. Mr. Brougham was the leading counsel for her 
defence against the bill, and by his extraordinary exertions 
and powerful advocacy produced such an effect, not only on 
the public mind, but on the noble jury who were to decide on 
her fate, that ministers were obliged to withdraw the bill. 
So severe had been his invectives against the king, not only 
in this defence, but in parliament also, on that and on other 
occasions, that, though his position at the bar had long 
entitled him to the usual precedence, his majesty refused to 
allow him the honour of a silk gown ; the death of the queen 



1830—1897. HENBY BROUGHAM. 83 

depriving him in the next year of that which he wore as her 
attorney-general. Against Lord Eldon^ to whom he attri- 
buted his exclusion^ he took every opportunity of aiming 
the most pointed shafts of wit and sarcasm. His lordship 
thus refers to one of his direst attacks in 1825^ in a letter 
to his daughter^ Lady F. J. Bankes : 

" You will see that Brougham has no mercy upon the 
chancellor. Laughs and cheers he produced from the com- 
pany with his jokes : which, however, he meant to play off 
in bitter malignity, and yet I could not help laughing at some 
of the jokes pretty heartily myself. No young lady was ever 
so unforgiving for being refused a silk gown, when silk gowns 
adorned female forms, as Brougham is with me, because, 
having insulted my master, the insulted don't like to clothe 
him with distinction, and honour, and silk." ^ 

Of course the cause of Brougham's severity, and the 
assertion of Eldon's indifference, must be both taken with 
some allowance ; but the fact was that, while his lordship re- 
mained chancellor. Brougham was obliged to content himself 
with a stuff gown. Under Lord Lyndhurst, who succeeded 
Lord Eldon, he received in 1827 a patent of precedence. At 
that time so conscious was he of his parliamentary powers, 
that he refused the place of lord chief baron offered him by 
Mr. Canning, the new minister, objecting that it would ex- 
clude him from the House ; and on Mr. Canning's suggestion 
that he would be only one stage from the woolsack, he replied, 
" But the horses would be off^ 

Soon after the accession of William IV., the ministry of 
the Duke of Wellington was obliged to succumb, and that 
headed by Earl Grey took its place. So strong were Mr. 
Brougham's claims on the Whigs that no lower place than 
that of lord chancellor could be offered to him, and he accord- 
ingly received the Great Seals on November 22, 1830; and 

> Twi88*s Life of Lord £ldon, ii. 537. 

G 2 



84 HENBY BROUGHAM. William IV. 

on the next day was created Lord Brougham and Yaux. 
During his chancellorship his utmost energies were applied 
in the House of Lords to the carrying of the Reform Bill, 
and to the support of all the measures introduced by the 
ministry ; and in the court of Chancery to the introducing 
many extensive reforms, some of doubtful value, but others 
of essential and permanent benefit. Among others he swept 
away a host of sinecure places entailing great expense to the 
suitors ; and as a compensation for so great an annihilation of 
the patronage of the office, he procured for his successors 
an addition of 1000/. a year to their retiring allowance. He 
went out with his party after exactly four years' enjoyment 
of the office on November 22, 1834 ; but when in the next 
years its successors were obliged in their turn to give way 
to the Whigs, for some cause or other, hitherto unexplained. 
Lord Brougham was not restored. Perhaps it was for the 
same reason, which was adduced by Sir Robert Walpole just 
one hundred years before, that he would not '^make a man lord 
chancellor who was constantly complaining of the grievances 
of the law, and threatening to rectify the abuses of West- 
minster Hall." * 

Lord Brougham was now in his fifty-seventh year, a 
period of life at which many a man having filled the highest 
office in the state, would have thought himself justified in 
resting upon his laurels. But he was of no such disposition ; 
he did not approve of slothful inaction, but preferred exer- 
cising his talents, whether in or out of office, with a view to 
the benefit of the state, and to the improvement of his 
fellow-creatures. Even now, at the end of thirty additional 
years, he has not lost his extraordinary energies, nor his 
beneficent intentions. He continued regularly to attend 
the hearing of appeals in the House of Lords for many years ; 

* Lord Heryey*s Memoirs, i. 434. 



1830—1837. HENET BROUGHAM. 85 

and for his indefatigable labours in that judicial capacity 
he was rewarded by Queen Victoria in 1860 with a new 
patent^ entailing his title in default of male issue upon his 
brother William Brougham^ Esq.^ lately a master in Chancery. 
Time has moderated his political feelings, and tempered his 
party virulence ; and he has even been charged by dis- 
appointed bigots with having joined the Tory ranks. But 
the imputation arose from his not choosing to desert old 
friends of that party, with whom, amidst the most violent 
political contests, he had still kept up his intimswjy. But 
no one could accuse him of any decay or discontinuance of 
his exertions for the extension of knowledge and instruction 
among the poor, or in the pursuit of the patriotic and benevo- 
lent objects it has been his life's endeavour to promote. Both 
before and after his exaltation these objects were numerous. 
Among the principal were the formation of the *'' Society 
for the Difiusion of Useful Knowledge," by which many 
valuable publications were issued; and the foundation of 
University College, London, extending the benefits of a 
superior education to a class of men who were incapable of 
incurring the customary expenses of Oxford or Cambridge, 
or who were unwilling to subject themselves to the tests or 
discipline required at those universities. To these may be 
added as a consequence the University College Hospital. 
He was also greatly instrumental in the establishment of 
the Social Science Association ; and as its president, even so 
lately as 1863, in his eighty-fifth year, he delivered a 
lengthened address at Edinburgh, the scene of his earliest 
triumphs, which surprised all who heard it by its vigour and 
variety. Neither has his pen been ever idle. His various 
contributions to the press have been collected in ten octavo 
volumes ; and it is to be hoped that to these he may shortly 
add " His Life and Times." He was elected lord rector of 
the University of Glasgow in 1825 ; and, retaining his 



86 WILLIAM GABEOW. William IV. 

popularity to the last^ he was chosen chancellor of the 
University of Edinburgh in 1860. 

By his wife^ Mary Anne^ daughter of Thomas Eden^ Esq.^ 
and niece of Lords Auckland and Henley^ the widow of John 
Spalding, Esq. (whom he married in 1819), he had two 
daughters, both since deceased, and no son; and his title 
will descend at his own death by the special limitation before 
mentioned to his brother, William Brougham, Esq. 

COLERIDGE, JOHN TAYLOR. 

Just. K. B. 1835. 
See under the Reign of Victoria. 

COLTMAN, THOMAS. 

Just. C. P. 1837. 

See under the Reign of Victoria. 

COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON, Lord Ltndhuhst. 

LosD Chako. 1830. Ch. B. £. 1830. Lord Chanc. 1834. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and Victoria. 

COTTENHAM, LORD. See C. C. Pepts. 

DENMAN, THOMAS, Lobd Denman. 

Ch. K B. 1832. 
See under the Reign of Victoria. 

GARROW, WILLIAM. 

B. E. 1830. 
See nnder the Reigns of George III. and George IV. 

The subject of this sketch was one of the most successful 
advocates of his day ; owing the ascendency he attained to 
his natural talent and sagacity more than to any deep know- 
ledge of law ; to which indeed he made no pretensions^ but 
modestly acknowledged and freely relied on the superiority 



ISSO— 1837. WILLIAM GARBOW. 87 

of his colleagues. William Garrow was bom on April 13, 
1760, at Monken-Hadley, in Middlesex, where his father, the 
Rev. David Garrow, kept a school, in which his son received 
the whole of his education. At the usual age of fifleen he 
was articled to Mr. Southouse, a respectable attorney 
residing in Milk Street, Cheapside. In that gentleman's 
office he acquired a pmctical knowledge of the profession, 
and showed so much ability and quickness that he was 
strongly recommended by his master to aim at the higher 
branch of the law. His friends consenting, he placed himself 
at the termination of his articles under Mr. Crompton, then 
an eminent special pleader, whose book of practice was for a 
long series of years the popular guide to the study. Having 
been admitted as a student at Lincoln's Inn on November 
27, 1778, he was called to the bar by that society on No- 
vember 26, 1783. 

To accustom himself to hear his own voice and to encounter 
that opposition to his arguments which must necessarily 
arise in forensic contests, he attended the debating societies 
then established in the metropolis, at which many of the 
leading statesmen and lawyers had made their first essays. 
At Coachmakers' Hall and other similar schools he soon be- 
came a powerful debater, and his speeches were so admired 
for their eloquence and ingenuity, that his presence at them 
was always welcomed. He assumed the gown, therefore, 
with a certain prestige, which immediately secured him some 
business at the Old Bailey, where he made his first appear- 
ance as a barrister. In that arena, so early as the January 
after he was called, he was fortunate enough so to distinguish 
himself as to establish a sure foundation for his future 
success. A clever swindler, Henry Aickles, was indicted 
for stealing a bill of exchange, which he had obtained under 
the promise of getting it discoimted ; instead of doing which, 
he had converted it to his own use. His counsel contended 



\ 



88 WILLIAM GAEROW. Wiluam IV. 

confidently that this was no felony^ and it* was considered a 
very doubtful point; but the acuteness of Mr. Garrow's 
reply, and the readiness and cogency of his arguments, so 
far satisfied the judge, that he left the question of fact to 
the jury, who convicted the delinquent ; and on a reference 
to the twelve judges, they coincided with Garrow's view of 
the law. 

His reputation thus established, his business rapidly in- 
creased, not only in the criminal cases of that court, but 
wherever his quickness and ingenuity were likely to be 
serviceable. In the general election of the same year he 
was fully employed. First, he was chosen assessor to the 
sheriff of Hertford, in the county election ; next, he was re- 
tained in the London scrutiny for Mr. Sawbridge ; and then 
he acted as counsel for Mr. Fox in the famous Westminster 
scrutiny. In reference to the latter, when he was suddenly 
called upon to address the House of Commons, his unpre- 
meditated speech was so forcible and luminous, that it excited 
the applause, and he received the congratulations, of even 
the opposing party. All this occurred in the first year after 
his call to the bar. He not only acquired the undisputed 
lead in the crown courts, but was also so much employed 
both on the Home Circuit and in Westminster Hall, that in 
April, 1793, he was appointed a king's counsel. 

Immediately taking a foremost rank among the barristers 
of the day, his services were perpetually engaged in honour- 
able contest with the phalanx of eminent men who, during 
the twenty-seven years that he remained at the bar with a 
silk gown, graced the courts in London and the country, the 
principal of whom were Erskine, Gibbs, and Best He was 
employed by the government in most of the state trials 
occurring during that period ; and in many of them the sole 
management was entrusted to him.' At last the time came 

> State Trials, 3uui.->zzzi. 



1830—1837. WILLIAM GAKROW. 89 

when the ministry could show their appreciation of his 
industry, abiKty, and eloquence. In June,. 1812, he was 
appointed solicitor-general, and knighted, having six years 
previously held the. office of attorney-general to the Prince 
of Wales, before he was regent. In the next year he was 
raised to the same office as the king's attorney, in succes- 
sion to Sir Thomas Plumer ; and further promoted to the 
chief-justiceship of Chester in March, 1814. 

He entered parliament in 1805, and represented succes- 
sively Gatton, Collington, and Eye ; but his senatorial 
harangues were not distinguished with more success than is 
usually attributed to members of the legal profession. 

After performing the duties of attorney-general for four 
years with exemplary forbearance and general commendation, 
he relieved himself from its responsibility by accepting on 
May 6, 1817, a seat on the bench of the Exchequer, made 
vacant by the promotion of Sir Richard Eichards to the 
post of chief baron. For nearly fifteen years he exercised 
the functions of a judge, when, prompted by the advance of 
age and infirmity, he retired in February, 1832, receiving an 
honourable reward for his services by being made a privy 
counsellor. He lived nearly eight years afterwards, and 
died on September 24, 1840, at his house at Pegwell Bay, 
near Kamsgate, at the age of eighty. 

His whole demeanour, whether as a barrister or a judge, 
was marked by courtesy and kindness ; and notwithstanding 
the apparent self-reliance and necessary forwardness which 
his extraordinary success would naturally engender, there 
was an innate modesty and diffidence in him, which was 
exemplified by his deferring to the superiority in law of his 
colleagues, and by his contenting himself with the place of a 
puisne baron, instead of any of the higher grades which 
from his position he might have claimed. His prominence 
while a barrister never deserted him ; he was scarcely ever 



90 WILLIAM 6ABBOW. Wiluam IV. 

left out in the causes before the courts and never in the im- 
portant ones. It was secured by the zeal which he showed 
for his client^ by the tact and ingenuity he displayed^ by his 
style of eloquence, which was most effective with the jury, 
and particularly by the skill and cleverness with which he 
elicited the truth from stupid or unwilling witnesses, his 
cross-examination of whom was one of his peculiar excel- 
lences. The influx of business with which he had to cope- 
from the very commencement of his career, although it made 
him an adept in the practice of the courts, and in the super- 
ficial questions of law, deprived him of the opportunity of 
studying the abstruser points. So conscious was he of his 
deficiency in the knowledge of the law of real property, 
that he always in caaes which touched that branch relied on 
the intelligence of his junior : and it is related of him in 
Sir Samuel Bomilly's diary, that, in several questions on 
which he appeared as attorney-general before the House of 
Lords, he actually read from a written paper the arguments 
prepared for him by a learned counsel whom he had em- 
ployed for the purpose in getting them up. 

As a judge his former experience gave him considerable 
advantages in the ordinary cases of Nisi Prius, by enabling 
him at once to pierce into the real merits of the question, 
and to detect any evasion or ambiguity : and in Banco he 
had the discretion not to go beyond the limits of his own 
learning. He maintained an intimate friendship with those 
who were his forensic antagonists and rivals ; and he closed 
his long life without a single stain on his moral character, 
and with the respect and deep affection of all who were 
closely connected with him. 

By his wife, whom he lost in 1808, he had two children, 
a son. Dr. David Garrow, who died rector of East Barnet, 
and a daughter, Eliza, who married the eldest son of the 
well-known Dr. Lettsom.^ 

1 Legal Observer, Feb. 18, 1832; Law Mag. and Gent. Mag. 1840. 



1830—1837. STSPHEN GASELEE. 91 

GASELEE, STEPHEN .> 

Just. C. P. 1830. 

See under the Reign of George IV. 

This respectable judge was the son of an eminent surgeon 
practising at Portsmouth, where he was bom in 1762. He 
chose the legal profession, and entered the society of Gray's 
Inn, by which he was called to the bar in 1793. He had 
the advantage of being a pupil of Sir Vicary Gibbs, under 
whose instruction he became a skilful special pleader. He 
joined the Western Circuit, and was so well respected as a 
careful and well-informed junior, that when, after six and 
twenty years' practice, he was made a king's counsel in 
1819, his professional income was probably diminished. 
But though not gifted with those oratorial powers which 
were likely to gain him employment as a leader, his deserved 
reputation for legal knowledge soon recommended him to 
a judge's place. Accordingly, on the resignation of Sir 
John Kichardson he was selected, on July 1, 1824, to supply 
the vacancy in the Common Pleas ; and was knighted in 
the following year. In that court he sat for nearly fourteen 
years with the character of a painstaking and upright judge, 
and in his private capacity as a worthy and benevolent man. 
He resigned his place at the end of Hilary Term, 1837, and 
after two years' retirement he died on March 26, 1839. 

His widow survived him, and one of his sons is now a 
serjeant-at-law. 

GURNEY, JOHN. 

B. E. 1832. 

See under the Reign of Victoria. 

LANGDALE, LORD. See H. Bickersteth. 
* Legal Observer, April 6, 1839. 



92 JOHN LEACH. William IV. 

LEACH, JOHN. 

M. R 1830. 
See under the Reigos of George III. and Greorge IV. 

SiE John Leach was bom on August 28, 1760, at Bed- 
ford, where his father Kichard Leach carried on the trade of 
a coppersmith. He was educated at the srammar school of 
that town, and being intended for an axcLct, wa. placed 
in the office of Sir Robert Taylor, then eminent in that 
profession. One specimen of his constructive talents re- 
mains at the present day in a house called Howlett's, in the 
parish of Bekesbourne, near Canterbury, which he planned 
for the proprietor of the estate ; and there is nothing in this 
example to indicate that he was unwise in leaving that 
calling for a more ambitious career. How the change 
occurred is variously related, but the result was that, by the 
recommendation of some of his friends who were struck 
with his energy and acuteness, he commenced the study of 
the law when he was about twenty-five years old, entering 
the Middle Temple in January, 1785, and placing himself 
under the tuition of Mr. (afterwards lord chief baron) Alex- 
ander, an equity counsel in considerable practice. 

After five years' diligent application he was called to the 
bar in February, 1790, and, as the custom in those days was 
for even chancery barristers, selected the Home Circuit and 
Surrey sessions. During the next ten years he attended 
them, and in both he secured an extensive business by his 
neat and forcible speeches and his lucid statement of facts. 
He also was engaged as counsel at the Seaford election and 
on the subsequent petition ; being his first connection with 
that borough, for which he was elected recorder in 1795, 
and over which, by his residence there and his purchases of 
property, he ultimately acquired such an influence as to be 
enabled to return both of its members. From 1800, when 



1830—1837. JOHN LEACH. 93 

he left the sessions and the circuity his business in the 
Equity courts increased to such an extent, that in Hilary 
Term, 1807, he was called within the bar with a patent of 
precedence, and proved himself an able opponent to the 
counsel who then took the lead in those courts. His style 
was peculiarly precise and terse, and his language re- 
markably correct and perspicuous, so that his arguments 
were very effective. In the previous year he entered par- 
liament for Seaford; for which he continued to sit till 
1816; when he left the ranks of the Whigs, which he had 
at first joined, and adopted the politics of the regent, who 
had set him the example of change. With that royal per- 
sonage he had gradually obtained favour from the time he 
defended the Duke of York in 1809 against the attacks of 
Colonel Wardle, in one of the few speeches which he uttered 
in the House. Another of his speeches was in support of 
the Regency Bill in 1811, thus confirming the favourable 
impression he had made on the regent, by whom he was 
appointed chancellor of the duchy of Cornwall in February, 
1816. To this in the next year was added the chief justice- 
ship of Chester on the elevation of Sir William Garrow to 
the Exchequer bench. 

The next proof of royal favour which he received was the 
appointment of vice-chancellor of England, the bill estab- 
lishing which office he had four years before strenuously 
opposed. He succeeded to that seat on January 9, 1818, 
on the promotion of Sir Thomas Plumer, the first vice- 
chancellor, and was knighted ; and on that judge's death, 
in May, 1827, he again succeeded him as master of the Rolls, 
and was sworn a privy counsellor. In this office he remained 
till his death, seven years after, on September 16, 1834 ; 
when he was buried at Edinburgh. 

Though remarkable for the gentleness of his manner, and 
the suavity of his address. Sir John Leach was the most 



94 JOHN LEACH. Wiluam IV. 

unpopular judge of his time ; and though his legal experience 
was great, his judgments gave but scant satisfaction. His 
irritable temper frequently involved him as a barrister in 
unseemly altercations with those opposed to him, and as a 
judge, in violent collisions with the leading members of the 
bar. His manner of treating those who differed from him, 
or against whom he had imbibed a prejudice, became so ob- 
noxious, that a deputation of the most distinguished counsel 
practising in his court waited upon him with a formal 
remonstrance upon his intemperate and dictatorial deport- 
ment towards the profession. The known intimacy between 
him and the prince regent, and the strong suspicion that he 
assisted in getting up the case against Queen Caroline, did 
not tend to diminish the dislike with which he was generally 
regarded. 

Sir Samuel Komilly writing in his diary in 1816, while he 
speaks highly of his talents and his powers of argumentation, 
says that he is worse qualified for a judicial situation than 
almost any one he haa known iu the profeseion. as « he is ex- 
tremely deficient as a lawyer," only knowing what he has 
acquired by daily practice, and being extremely wanting in 
judgment And he prophesies that if he should be ever 
raised to a great situation, this deficiency, and ^^ his extra- 
ordinary confidence in himself, wiU involve him in some 
serious difficulty." This prophecy was verified in the result. 
Both as vice-chancellor and master of the Bolls, though he 
dispatched the causes before him with immense celerity, 
he relied so little upon authorities, and listened so in- 
differently to any arguments that conflicted with his own 
opinion, sometimes not even condescending to give any 
reasons for his judgments, that his decisions were frequently 
appealed against, and not unfrequently overturned. In 
comparing his summary judgments with Lord Eldon's pro- 
verbial delays, the chancellor's court was designated the 



1830—1837. JOHN LEACH. 95 

court of Oyer sans terminer, and Sir John's that of Terminer 
sans oyer. This peculiarity of the two courts was made 
the subject of the epigram given in the memoir of the 
chancellor. 

In private life his amenity and courteousness were as re- 
markable as his sharpness and want of temper on the bench. 
One of his failings tended to make him somewhat ridiculous. 
Not content with distinction as a lawyer^ he had the absurd 
ambition of being considered a man of fashion. He prided 
himself on his aristocratic intimacies^ and, seldom associat- 
ing with his professional brethren^ firequented the crowded 
parties of the great, even after the fatigue of sitting in his 
court to a late hour in the night. This perpetual round of 
fatigue and gaiety probably occasioned, or aggravated, the 
diseases under which he suffered towards the end of his life — 
diseases requiring painful operations, which he underwent 
with the greatest fortitude, and which he never allowed to 
interfere with the discharge of his duties. He was in his 
seventy-fifth year when he died, and was never married.^ 

LITTLEDALE, JOSEPH. 

JuBT. K K 1830. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and Victoria. 

LYNDHURST, LORD. See J. S. Copley. 

PARK, JAMES ALAN. 

Just. C. P. 1830. 

See under the Reigns of George HL, George IV., and Victoria. 

PAREE, JAMES, afterwards Lord Wensleydale. 

Just. K K 1830. B. E. 1834. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and Victoria. 

> Legal Obsenrer, Oct. 4, 1834; Law and Lawyers, ii. 88; Law Mag. xii. 427. 



96 WILLIAM ELIAS TAUNTON. WiLUAM IV. 

PATTESON, JOHN. 

Just. E. B. 1830. 

See under the Reign of Victoria. 

PEPYS, CHARLES QHRISTOPHER, Lord Cottenham. 

M. R. 1884. Com. G. S. 1835. Lobd Chanc. 1836. 
See under the Reign of Victoria. 

SCARLETT, JAMES, Lord Abinger. 

Ch. B. E. 1834. 
See under the Reign of Victoria. 

SHADWELL, LANCELOT. 

V. C. 1830. Com. G. S. 1835. 
See under the Reigna of George IV. and Victoria. 

TAUNTON, WILLIAM ELIAS. 
Just. E. B. 1830. 

The family of Taunton can be traced to a very remote 
period in the West of England. The judge's father, of the 
same name as himself, was clerk of the peace for the county 
and town-clerk of the city of Oxford, and had received the 
honour of knighthood. By his marriage with Frances, 
daughter of Stephen Grosvenor, Esq., sub-treasurer of 
Christchurch, he had a large family, the eldest of whom was 
William Elias, the future judge. He was bom in 1773, 
and was educated first at Westminster, and then at Christ- 
church, where he distinguished himself by gaining the 
chancellor's prize in 1793 for the best English essay, the 
subject being " Popularity." In the next year he entered 
Lincoln's Inn, and applied himself zealously to the study of 
the law, in which, when he was called to the bar in Easter 
Term, 1799, he was deeply grounded. He joined the Oxford 
Circuit, uniting with it, according to the practice of the 



1830—1837. WILLIAM ELIAS TAUNTON. 97 

time^ that of the district of Sonth Wales. He soon acquired 
the reputation of a black-letter lawyer^ and to great legal 
knowledge he added considerable abilities as a speaker. 
His style of eloquence was considered rather ponderous^ 
but occasionaU J he burst into idgorous thought and beauty, 
and in language pure and terse exhibited the vast extent of 
his acquirements. 

In 1805 he was elected deputy-recorder of Oxford to Mr. 
Charles Abbot, afterwards Lord Colchester, upon whose 
resignation he succeeded as recorder. He also became 
one of the Commissioners of Bankrupts, and in 1822 received 
a silk gown as king's counseL When, eight years after, the 
addition of another judge was required in each court, he was 
selected to take the place in the king's bench vacated by Sir 
John Bayley, who changed into the Exchequer. He 
received his appointment on November 12, 1830, and 
proved himself a most accomplished judge. His judgments 
were remarkable for originality of thought and felicity of 
expression, proceeding from a thoroughly independent mind. 
His judicial career, however, was a very limited one ; in five 
years it was terminated by his sudden death, on January 11, 
1835, at his house in Kussell Square. 

In 1814 he married Maria, daughter of Henry William 
Atkinson, Esq., provost of the Company of Moneyers, Royal 
Mint; by whom he left two sons and three daughters.^ 

TENTERDEN, LORD. See C. Abbott. 
TINDAL, NICOLAS CONYNGHAM. 

Ch. C. p. 1830. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and Victoria. 



* Legal Observer, ix. : Law Mag xiii. 165. 
VOL. IX. H 



98 JOHN WILLIAMS. William IV 

VAUGHAN, JOHN. 

R E. 1830. Just. C. P. 1834. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and Victoria. 

WENSLEYDALE, LORD. See J. Parke. 
WILLIAMS, JOHN. 

B. E. 1834. Just. K B. 1834. 

See nnder the Reign of Victoria. 



99 



VICTORIA. 

Succeeded to the Crown on June 20, 1837. 



SURVEY OF THE REIGN. 

During the twenty-seven years that have elapsed since the 
commencement of the present reign — and may its termination 
be far distant — many great and valuable improvements have 
been effected in the law. With those only which relate to 
the constitution of the courts it is the object of these pages 
to deal^ and they have been so important in facilitating the 
transaction of business^ that complaints can no longer exist 
of the " law's delay." 

In 1841, by stat. 5 Vict c. 5, the equity jurisdiction of the 
Court of Exchequer was abolished, and its causes were trans- 
ferred to the Court of Chancery ; the staff of which, tp meet 
the increase of its business, was enlarged by the nomination 
of two additional vice-chancellors, sitting in separate courts. 
Ten years afterwards it was found necessary further to 
relieve the lord chancellor's labours, augmented as they 
naturally were by the multiplicity of appeals from the newly 
constituted courts. Two new judges were accordingly ap- 
pointed in 1851 by stat. 14 & 15 Vict. c. 83, called Lord 
Justices of the Court of Appeal ; by whom, either sitting 
together or with the lord chancellor, all appeals from the 
decisions of the other Equity Courts were to be decided. 

The Ecclesiastical Courts of Doctors' Commons were also 
abolished ; and the great diflBculty and expense of married 

H 2 



100 8ALABIE8 OF JUDGES. Victoria. 

persons in obtaining relief from the cruelty or adultery or 
other misconduct of their wives or husbands heretofore 
existing^ were endeavoured to be removed by the institution 
of a new jurisdiction, by which the former three processes of 
an action for damages in a common law court, a suit for dis- 
solution a mensa et thoro in Doctors' Commons, and an act 
for dissolution a vinculo matrimonii in Parliament, were 
entirely superseded in cases of alleged adultery ; and a suit 
consolidating them all in one proceediug before a single 
judge was substituted. The other evils of married life were 
attempted to be remedied in a similar manner. This act 
was passed in 1858, since which date the court has been so 
overwhelmed with applications, some of them from persons 
desirous of dissolving the marriage bond by collusive suits 
or frivolous pretences, encouraged thereto by the increased 
facility of proceeding and the moderate expenditure, that 
many have doubted whether the evil that this engenders is 
compensated by the benefit which the jurisdiction confers in 
the more substantial cases. The excellent judges who have 
been appointed have done their best to provide a check upon 
these dishonest and trifling applications, and experience will 
shew whether further Parliamentary aid will be required. 
To this court are attached all testamentary cases ; and it is 
called the Court of Divorce and Probate. 

The Court of Bankruptcy established at the beginning of 
the last reign was abolished in 1847, and various changes 
have been made with regard to the administration of the 
estates of bankrupts, the list of whom has been largely 
increased by the addition of all insolvent debtors, who are 
now made subject to the same laws. 

The salary of the chief justices of the King's Bench and 
the Common Pleas, which were fixed in 1825 at 10,0007. 
and 8000Z. respectively, were reduced in 1851, by stat. 14 & 15 
Vict. c. 41, to 8000Z. for the former, and 7000Z. for the 



1837— LOED CHANCELLORS. 101 

latter ; which reduced salaries only it appears by the said 
act had been accepted by the chiefs since the death of Lord 
Tenterden. 

By another act of the same session^ c. 83, s. 17, the salary 
or sum that was payable to the lord chancellor as speaker of 
the House of Lords was directed to form part of his salary 
as chancellor, so that he should not receive more in the 
whole than the 10,000Z. fixed by the statute of William IV. 

Already during this reign there have been no less than 
six changes in the administration of the kingdom ; arising 
from the equality of the two principal political parties in the 
state — no longer described as Whigs and Tories, but using 
the more elegant titles of Liberals and Conservatives — and 
the weight of each being increased or diminished by the 
accession to or desertion from the ranks of one or the other 
of the minor and more violent sections on certain subjects of 
discussion, raised for the purpose of trying the strength of 
the party in power. In all these changes the Great Seal is of 
course entrusted to new chancellors, the number of whom 
by death and retirement has been increased to nine ; besides 
a short interval during which the Seal was in commission. 

Lord Chancellors. 

Charles Christopher, Lord Cottenham, was in 
office on the accession of her majesty, and remained lord 
chancellor for four more years, when the ministry was 
changed, and 

John Singleton, Lord Ltndhurst, was for the third 
time entrusted with the Great Seal on September 3, 1841, 
and kept it for nearly five years. The ministry being then 
again changed, 

Charles Christopher, Lord Cottenham, was re- 
stored to the office on July 4, 1846. After four years 



102 LORD CHANCELLORS. ViCTOBlA. 

enjoyment of it he resigned on June 19, 1850, having been 
advanced to the earldom of Cottenham on the first of the 
same month. 

Henry, Lord Langdale, M.B., 

Sir Lancelot Shadwell, V.C, and 

Sir Robert Monset Rolfe, B.E., the lord commis- 
sioners then appointed, kept the Seal for less than a month, 
when it was transferred to 

Sir Thomas Wilde, lord chief justice of the Common 
Fleas, on July 15, 1850, he being created on the same day 
Lord Truro. In a year and a half he gave way to 

Sir Edward Burtenshaw Sugden, who had been 
lord chancellor of Ireland, on February 27, 1852. On the 
next day he was ennobled with the title of Baron St. 
Leonard's, and remained in office only ten months ; when 

Robert Monsey, Lord Cranworth, one of the lord 
justices of the Court of Appeal, and who had been a com- 
missioner of the Great Seal, was on December 28, 1852, 
constituted lord chancellor. His tenure of office lasted for a 
little more than five years, when on a change of ministry 

Sir Frederick Thesiger, who had before filled the 
office of attorney-general, was made lord chancellor on 
February 26, 1858, and was on the next day created Lord 
Chelmsford. In a year and four months another change 
took place, and 

John, Lord Campbell, lord chief justice of the Queen's 
Bench, succeeded on June 18, 1859. On his death two 
years after. 

Sir Richard Bethell, the attorney-general, was pro- 
moted to this office on June 26, 1861, and has filled it, with 
the title of Lord Westbury, up to the present time. 



1837— lord justices of appeal. 103 

Masters of the Rolls. 

Henry, Lord Langdale, retained the office of master 
of the rolls for the first fourteen years of this reign ; and on 
his resignation 

Sir John Romilly, then attorney-general, was promoted 
to it on March 28, 1851. He has held it for the thirteen 
years that have since elapsed. 

By one of the first acts of this reign (stat. 7 Will. IV. and 
1 Vict. c. 46, passed on July 12, 1837) the whole of the 
Rolls Estate was vested in the crown, and the salary of 
7000Z., granted under stat. 6 Geo. IV. c. 84, was secured to 
him in lieu of all fees and emoluments. But by an act, 
14 & 15 Vict. c. 83, passed in August 1851, the said salary 
was reduced to 6000Z. a year. 

By the last mentioned statute we have already seen that 
the Queen was empowered to appoint two new judges, to be 
styled lord justices of the Court of Appeal in Chancery. 
They were to be barristers of fifteen years standing ; and to 
take rank next after the lord chief baron of the Exchequer. 
Their salary was fixed at 6000Z. a year each, with a retiring 
pension not exceeding 3750Z. on the usual conditions. 

Lord Justices of Appeal. 

Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce was the first ap- 
pointed lord justice, on October 8, 1851. He still occupies 
the same place in the court. 

Robert Monsey, Lord Cranworth, was the second, 
named on the same day. He was constituted lord chancellor 
at the close of the following year, and 

Sir George James Turner succeeded him on January 
10, 1853, and still holds the second place. 

The present lord justices are — 

Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce, Sir George James Turner. 



104 VICE-CHANCELLORS. VlCTOMA. 

ViCE-ChANCELLOB of EKGLAlilD. 

. Sir Lancelot Shad well, who had held this oflSce since 
1827, retained it till his death on August 10, 1850. 

When that event occurred the title of vice-chancellor of 
England was discontinued; and Sir Lancelot's successors were 
to take the same rank, to receive the same salary, and to be 
entitled to the same retiring allowance, as the vice-chancellors 
appointed under the before-mentioned statute of 1841. By 
that act two barristers of fifteen years' standing might be 
appointed by the Queen, each to be called vice-chancellor ; 
with power to her majesty to appoint a successor on the 
resignation or death of the first named vice-chancellor, but 
not on that of the second named : each to sit in a separate 
court ; and to take precedence next after the lord chief baron 
of the Exchequer. Their salaries were to be 5000Z. a year ; 
with an annuity not exceeding 3500Z. for life on resignation 
after fifteen years' service or permanent infirmity. 

Soon afJ the resignation of Sir James Wigram, tiie 
second named vice-chancellor, in 1850, another Act was 
passed, stat. 14 & 15 Vict. c. 4, enabling the crown to 
appoint a vice-chancellor in his place, but, under the expec- 
tation that the pressure of business was only temporary, it 
did not authorise the appointment of any successor to him. 

When, however, the abolition of the office of master in 

Chancery, to be noticed presently, took place, and the duties 

of it were transferred to the vice-chancellors, it became 

necessary to make the second of the above vice-chancellors 

a permanent appointment, and by sect. 52 of the stat. 15 & 

16 Vict. c. 80 (1852), authority was accordingly given for 

that purpose. All three now hold their offices under the 

general name of 

Vicb-Chancellors. 

V. 1841. Oct. 28. James Lewis Kniffht-Bruce, I „ , " 

T ITT' r cellors under 

James Wigram, J 5 Vict c. 6. 



1827— MA8TEB8 IN CHANCBRT. 105 

XIV. 1860. Nov. 2. Robert Monsey Rolfe, vice L. Shadwell, cr. 

Dec. I860, Lord Cranworth. 
1861. April 2. George James Turner^ vice James Wigram. 
XV . Oct. 20. Richard Torin Einderaley, vice J. L. Eniglit- 

Bruce. 
James Parker, vice Lord CranwortL 
XVI. 1852. Sept 20. John Stuart, vice J. Parker. 

1853. Jan. 10. William Page Wood, vice G. J. Turner. 

The present vice-chancellors are 

Sir Richard Torin Eindersley, 
Sir John Stuart, Sir William Page Wood. 

MA8TEBS IN ChANCEBT. 

Henry, Lord Langdale, M.R. - - - 
William George Adam, A. G. to April 1830 

John E. Dowdeswell - - - - 

Francis Cross - - - - - 

William Wingfield 

James William Farrer - - - - 

Robert, Lord Henley - - - - 
Giffin Wilson - 

George B. Roupell - - - - - 

Henry Martin - - - - - 

William Brougham - - - - - 
Nassau William Senior 

Andrew H. Lynch - - - - - 

Samuel Duckworth - - - - - 
William Russell, A. G. from April 1839 - 

William Home - - - - - 

George Rose - - - - - 

Richard Richards, an additional Master, on the 

transfer of the Equity business of the Court of 

Exchequer to the Court of Chancery 

William H. Tinney - - - - - 
Richard T. Kindersley, afterwards vice-chancellor - 

John E. Blunt - - - - - 

Joseph Humphry - - - - - 
Sir John Romilly, M. R. - 

Mr. Humphry was the last master appointed. In 1852^ 
the ancient office of master in Chancery^ after an existence 
of between seven and eight hundred years^ during which it 



1 to 14 Vict. 


Ito 2 


i— 


ltol4 


— 


Ito 2 


— 


Ito 13 


— 


Ito 16 


— 


Ito 4 


— 


Ito 11 


— 


1 


— 


Ito 8 


— 


Ito 16 


— . 


Ito 17 


— . 


Ito 10 


— 


2 to 11 


— 


2to 


— 


8 to 17 


— 


4 to 21 


—^ 


5 to 24 




11 to 24 


— 


11 to 16 


— 


13 to 20 


— 


14 to 24 


— 


14 to 


•^ 



106 queen's bench. Victoria. 

had been the subject of grievous complaints under most 
of the intervening reigns, was boldly abolished. The 
business usually performed by the masters was transferred to 
the judges of the court and their chief clerks ; and the 
chauge was considered by the suitors as most beneficial, in 
the expectation of a considerable diminution both of delay 
and expense. The stat. 15 & 16 Vict. c. 80, enacted that 
this alteration should commence on the first day of Michaelmas 
term, 1852, by the release of Mr. Farrer and Mr. Brougham 
from their duties ; and it gave the lord chancellor power, 
from time to time, according to the state of the business 
before them, to release the other masters, in the order of 
their seniority of appointment ; who were all secured their 
full salaries during life. The two last-remaining masters, 
Mr. Tinney and Mr. Humphry, received their release from 
Lord Chancellor Campbell on August 8, 1860. 

Several other offices of the court of Chancery had been 
abolished ten years previously, and arrangements were made 
for the performance of the duties that had belonged to 
them. Among them were the six clerks, anciently called, 
** Clerici de secundo gradu^ or perhaps " Clerici de cursu^^ 
who could boast of as high an antiquity as the masters. Part 
of their duty, or more properly of the sworn clerks under 
them, was the taxation of costs. To perform this duty, the 
stat 5 & 6 Vict. c. 103 (1842), which enacted these changes, 
appointed six new officers, called " Taxing Masters," with a 
salary of 2000Z. a year each ; and to the chancellor was 
given, in case the business required an addition to their 
number, authority to increase them to nine. 

Chief Justices op the Queen's Bench. 

Thomas, Lord Denman, who had held the office of 
lord chief justice from November 1832, resigned it in 
February 1850; and was succeeded by 



1837— queen's BENCH^ — COMMON PLEAS. 107 

John, Lord Campbell, who had for a short tune been 
lord chancellor of Ireland, on March 6. He presided for 
above nine years, when he was made lord chancellor of Great 
Britain, and 

Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, Bart, 
was removed from the presidency of the court of Common 
Fleas to the head of this court on June 24, 1859 ; which he 
still retains. 

Justices of the Queen's Bench. 

I. 1837. June. Joseph Littledale. 

John Patteson. 
John Williams. 
John Taylor Coleridge. 
rV. 1841. Feb. William Wightman, vice J. Littledale. 

X. 1846. Oct. William Erie, vice J. Williams. 

XV. 1852. Feb. Charles Crompton, vice J. Patteson. 

XXI 1868. May 29. Hugh HUl, vice J. T. Coleridge. 
XXni. 1869. June. Colin Blackburn, vice W. Erie. 

XXV. 1861. Dec. 3. John MeUor, vice H. HiU. 

XXVn. 1863. Dec. 18. William Shee, vice W. Wightman. 

The present judges of this court are 
Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, Bart., 

chief justice, 
Sir Charles Crompton, Sir John Mellor, 

Sir Colin Blackburn, Sir William Shee. 

Chief Justices of the Common Pleas. 

Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal continued to pre- 
side in this court for nine years in this reign, and then dying, 
was succeeded by 

Sir Thomas Wilde, the attorney-general, on July 7, 
1846. At the end of four years he was advanced to the 
post of lord chancellor, with the title of Lord Truro, and 

Sir John Jervis, also attorney-general, was appointed 
on July 15, 1850. His death occurred after little more than 
six years, when 



108 COMMON PLEAS — EXCHEQUER. YiCTORUL. 

SiE Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, the 
attorney-general^ succeeded him on November 21, 1856 ; 
and after remaining here not quite three years, he was pro- 
moted to the head of the court of Queen's Bench, and 

Sir William Erle, a judge of the Queen's Bench, 
became on June 24, 1859, lord chief justice of this court, 
over which he still presides. 



Judges op the Common Pleas. 

I. 1837. June. James Alan Park. 

John Vaughan. 
Jolin Bernard Bosanquet. 
Thomas Coltman. 
XL 1839. Jan. 9. Thomas Ersldne, vice J. A. Park, 

in. Nov. William Henry Maule, vice J. Vaughan. 

V. 1842. Jan. Cresswell Cresswell, vice J. B. Bosanquet 

Vni. 1844. Nov. William Erie, vice T. Erskine. 

X. 1846. Oct. • Edward Vaughan Williams, vice W. Erie. 

Xni. 1849. July. Thomas Noon Talfourd, vice T. Coltman. 

XVIL 1854 March. Richard BuddenCrowder,viceT.N.Talfourd. 

XIX. 1856. July. James Shaw Willes, vice W. H. Maule. 

XXI. 1858. Jan. John Bernard Byles, vice C. Cresswell. 

XXm. 1859. Dec. 14. Henry Singer Keating, vice R. B. Crowder. 

The present judges of the Common Pleas are 
Sir William Erie, chief justice, 
SirEdward Vaughan Williams, Sir John Bernard Byles, 
Sir James Shaw Willes, Sir Heniy SingerKeating. 



Chief Baeons of the Exchequer. 

James^ Lobd Abingeb, retained the presidency of this 
court for nearly seven years of this reign. On his death 

Sir Frederick Pollock, attorney-general, was ap- 
pointed lord chief baron, on April 15, 1844, and holds the 
same rank at the present date. 



1837— EXCHEQUEB — CURSITOR BABON. 109 



Babons of the Exchequeb. 

I. 1837. June. James Parke. 

William Bolland. 
Edward Hall Alderson. 
John Gnmey. 

George Bankes, cursitor baron. 
1839. William Heniy Maule, vice W. Bolland. 

Nov. Robert Monsey Rolfe, vice W. H. Maule. 

1845. Jan. Thomas Joshua Piatt, vice J. Gumey. 

1860. Nov. 6. Samuel Martin, vice R. M. Rolfe. 

1866. Jan. GeorgeWiUiamW.Bramwell, vice J.Parke. 
Nov. 3. William Heniy Watson, vice T. J. Piatt. 

1867. Feb. 12. William Fiy ChanneU,vice E. H. Alderson. 
1860. April 13. James Plaisted Wilde, vice W. H. Watson. 
1863. Oct. 2. Gillery Pigott, vice J. P. WHde. 

The existing barons are 

Sir Frederick Pollock, chief baron. 
Sir Samuel Martin, Sir George Wm.W. Bramwell, 

SirWilUamFryChannell, Sir GiUery Pigott. 



On the death of Cursitor Baron Bankes, in July 1856, an 
Act was passed (stat. 19 & 20 Vict. c. 86), abolishing the 
oflSce, and enacting that any act which it had been his duty 
to execute, might in future be performed by any baron of 
the coif or officer of the court, as the chief baron should 
direct. Almost the only remaining duty which devolved on 
the cursitor baron, after the various alterations that had 
taken place in former reigns in the mode of accounting in the 
Exchequer, was the formal Michaelmas solemnity of notifying 
in the court of Exchequer the sovereign's sanction to the 
election of the sheriffs of London, and witnessing the attendant 
ceremonies of counting the hobnails and chopping the fagots 
as rent service to the crown. These formalities are now 
performed before the queen's remembrancer, in his office 
instead of in the court itself. 



110 POST-MAN AND TUB-MAN. ViCTOBlA. 

In the court of Exchequer there are two barristers, called 
the post-man and the tub-man; the offices being of great 
antiquity, but of their origin I have not been able to trace 
any account. They are so named from the places they 
occupy in the court ; the post-man having his " post " in a 
seat on the left extremity of the first row of the outer bar, 
(the right of the bench) ; and the tub-man being seated in a 
box or " tub," on the right extremity. They are always 
members of the outer bar, and are nominated by the lord 
chief baron by word of mouth in open court, but have no 
rank or privilege beyond its precincts. In the court itself 
they have preaudience before all other barristers. Her Ma- 
jesty's attorney-general not excepted ; the post-man in all 
common law business, and the tub-man in all equity and 
revenue business. When the chancellor of the Exchequer, 
who, in default of a lord treasurer, is the senior judge of the 
equity side of the court, takes his oaths and his seat on 
appointment, he always calls upon the tub-man to make a 
motion. Even in the present day the appointments are 
considered of some degree of importance, and they have 
been held by several of our judges. 






1837— 



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1837— 



COMMON PLEAS. 



113 



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VOL. IX. 



114 



EXCHEQUER. 



ViCTOBIA. 



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1837— 



ATTORNEY- AND SOUCITOE- GENERAL 8. 



115 



L 1837. 


June. 


V. 


1841. 


July a 
Sept 6. 


VII. 


1844. 


April 16. 


rX. 1846. 


June 29. 


X 1846. 


July 2. 






7. 


XTV. 


1860. 


July 11. 




1861. 


March 28. 


XV. 


1862. 


Feb. 27. 


XVI. 




Dec. 28. 


XX. 


1866. 


Nov. 


XXT. 


1868. 


Feb. 26. 


XXTT. 1869. 


June 18. 


XXV. 


1861. 


June 27. 


xxvn. 


1863. 


Oct 2. 


I. 


1837. 


So] 

June. 


m. 


1839. 


Dec. 2. 


V. 


1841. 


Sept 6. 


vn. 


1844. 


April 16. 


IX. 


1846. 


July. 


X. 


1846. 


July 4. 
7. 


XI. 


1848. 


March. 


XIV. 


1860. 


July 11. 




1861. 


March 28. 


XV. 


1862. 


Feb. 27. 


XVI. 




Dec. 28. 


XX. 1866. 


Nov. 




1867. 


May. 


XXI. 


1868. 


Feb. 26. 


XXII. 


1869. 


June 18. 


xxm. 




Dec. 16. 



XXV. 1861. June 28. 
xxvn. 1863. Oct. 2. 



Attobney-Genebal's. 

Sir John Campbell, made lord chancellor 

of Ireland. 
Sir Thomas Wilde, resigned. 
Sir Frederick Pollock, made Ch. B. E. 
Sir WiUiam Webb FoUett, died, 1846. 
Sir Frederick Thesiger, resigned. 
Sir Thomas Wilde, made Ch. C. P. 
Sir John Jervis, made Ch. 0. P. 
Sir John Komilly, made M. B. 
Sir Alexander J. £. Cockbum, resigned. 
Sir Frederick Thesiger, resigned. 
Sir Alexander J. £.Cockbum, made Ch. C. P. 
Sir Richard Bethell, resigned. 
Sir Fitzroy Kelly, resigned. 
Sir Richard Bethell, made lord chancellor. 
Sir William Atherton, resigned. 
Sir Roundell Palmer, 

Solicitob-Genebals. 

Sir Robert M. Rolfe, made B. E. 

Sir Thomas Wilde, made attorney-general. 

Sir William Webb Follett, made attorney- 
general. 

Sir Frederick Thesiger, made attorney- 
general. 

Sir Fitzroy Kelly, resigned. 

Sir John Jervis, made attorney-general. 

Sir David Dundas, resigned. 

Sir John Romilly, made attorney-general. 

Sir Alexander J. E. Cockbum, made 
attorney-general. 

Sir William Page Wood, resigned. 

Sir Fitzroy Kelly, resigned. 

Sir Richard Bethell, made attorney-general. 

Hon. James Stuart Wortley, resigned. 

Sir Henry Singer Keating, resigned. 

Sir Hugh M'Calmont Cairns, resigned. 

Sir H. S. Keating, made Just C. P. 

Sir William Atherton, made attorney- 
general. 

Sir Roundell Palmer, made attomey-generaL 

Sir Robert Pollett Collier. 

I 2 



116 8EBJEANTS. YiCTouA. 

Sebjeants at Law. 

The Inn of Court is noted by the added initial ; and an 
asterisk is placed before those who became judges. 

IL 1899. *Hon. Thomas Eraldne (L.) 

Motto^ ** Judicium parium." 
"William Hemy Maule (L.) 

Motto; " Suum cuique." 
•Robert Monsey Bolfe (L.) 

Motto, " Suayiter et fortiter." 
m. 1840. J. Mamiing (I..) ♦W. Shee (L.) 

J. Halcomb (L) D. C. Wrangham (G.) 

•W. F. Chamiell (I.) 

Motto, '' Honos nomenque manebunt." 
W. Glover (M.) 

Motto j ''Eegina et lege gaudet serviens." 
S. Gaselee (I.) 

Motto, '' Nee temerd nee timidd." 
IV. 1841. •WiUiam Wightman (L.) 

Motto; '^ .^Equam servare mentem." 
J. V. Thomson (h.) 

Motto, '' Nee ultra, nee dtra." 
V. 1842. •Oreaewell Oreflswell (I.) 

Motto, '* Leges, jmiique." 
F. J. Murphy (L.) 

Motto, ^' Ihcidere ludimi." 
H. G. Jones. 

Motto, '' Bene yolens." 

A. S. Bowling. 

Motto, '* Onus allexit." 
VL 1843. N. R. Clarke. 

Motto, '' Sapiens qui assiduus.'' 
•J. B. Byles (I.) 

Motto, ^^ Metuit secundus.*' 
Vn. 1844. •Frederick Pollock (I.) 

B. Bellasis (M.) J. A. Einglake (L.) 
0. E. Jones (M.) 

Motto, " Paribus legibus." 
•W. Erie (M.) 

Motto, " Tenax justitiaB." 
Vin. 1845. •!. J. Piatt (I.) 

Motto, " Labor et fides." 
R. Allen (G.) 

Motto, " Hie per tot casus." 



1887— 



SEBJEANTS. I 1 7 



E. S. Bain (M.) 

Motto, « A Deo et reginA.'* 
C. Wilkins (L) 

Motto, ^'Non qaOy sed qaomodo." 
X, 1846. •Edward Vaugliaii Williania (L.) 

Motto, " Legom servi et liberL" 
XL 1848. A. WalKnger (M.) 

Motto, ^ Qmi, quandoque deceat" 
XIV. 1860. • John Jervis (M.) 

Motto, ^^ Venale nee anio." 
•S. Martin (M.) 

Motto, ^ Lahore." 
R. MiUer (M.) 

Motto, *^ Honeste niti." 
*Jolin, Loid Campbell (L.) 
Motto, ^'Jnatitiffi tenax." 
XV. 1862. *C. Crompton (L) 

Motto, *' Quaere yenun." 
It. Thomas (M.) R Matthews (M.) 

Motto, " Hoc age." 
XVn. 1864. •». B. Crowder (M.) 

Motto, ''Lex omnibus una." 
G. Atkinson (L) 
XIX. 1866. *J. S. Willes (I.) 

H. W. Woolrych (L.) 

Motto, " Leges, juraque." 
1866. G. Hayes (M.) M. L. Wells (M.) 

•G. Piggott (M.) 

Motto, '' Gedant arma togse." 
W. Ballantine (L) J. H. Parry (M.) 

Motto of former, '' Jacta est alea." 
Motto of latter, « Spe et fide." 
♦G. W. W. BramweU (L.) 
Motto, ^' DiKgenter." 
•W. H. Watson (L.) 

Motto, "MiUtaTi." 
•A. J. E. Cockbum (M.) 
Motto, "Fiat justitia." 
XXL 1868. 0. Petersdorf (I.) 

Motto, '* Nee mora, nee reqoies." 
J. Cross (G.) 

Motto; " In cruce fido." 
J. Tozer (L.) 

Motto, " Et tonui tolas discreverat auro." 



w 



118 8EBJE ANTS. VlCTOBXA. 

W. Payne (G.) 

Motto, " Reyerentia legum." 
•RHiU(M.) 

Motto, *^ Nil nisi cruce." 
XXm. 1869. •C. Blackburn (I.) 

Peter Burke (I.) 

Motto, *' Veritas et judicium," 
•R S. Keating (I.) 

Motto, " Fortitudine et constantia." 
1860. •!. P. Wilde (L) 

Motto, " Veritas yictrix." 
XXIV. 1861. T. Wheeler (L) 

Motto, " Non sine labore." 
XXV. ♦J. Mellor (I.) 

Motto, " Lex ratione probata.** 
XXVn. 1864. A. Pulling (I.) 

Motto, " Jura servare." 
J. Simon (M.) 

Motto, " In consilio justorum.' 
H. T. Atkinson (M.) 

Motto, " Vincit qui paiitur." 



Queen's Serjeants. 

1846. •T. N. Talfourd (M.) J. Manning (L.) 

1857. D. C. Wrangbam (G.) •W. Shee (L.) 
•J. B. Byles (I.) 

No sooner had the queen come to the throne than the 
Serjeants stirred themselves to restore their ancient rights 
and privileges. The queen's Serjeants, none of whom had 
taken rank under the late king's warrant, having already had 
precedence, presented a petition to her majesty, praying that 
the legality and expedience of the said warrant might be 
d.I, in^%..ed. l^ petiUoa ,» referred ,« .he\ri^ 
Council, before whom the question was solemnly argued in 
January 1839. No attempt was made by the crown lawyers 
to justify the legality or the expediency of the warrant, the 
issuing of which was admitted to be beyond the prerogative 
of the crown. The Privy Council, not deeming it necessary 



las 7— SEKJJJANTS. 119 

to pronounce any judgment, the Serjeants in the following 
November brought the matter before the court of Comi^on 
Pleas, moving that the warrant should be treated as a 
nullity, and that the Serjeants only should be heard in that 
court ag of old. The judges at the end of Hilary term, 
1840, pronounced their decision in accordance with the mo- 
tion. The immediate consequence was, that five gentlemen 
were invested with the degree, who selected for their rings 
the happy and seemingly appropriate motto, 

"Honos nomenque manebunt." 

The triumph of the Serjeants was short-lived. Their 
power and monopoly were doomed to destruction ; and that 
which could resist royal authority was obliged to succumb 
to parliamentary enactment. Within seven years after King 
William's warrant was declared a nullity, the change which 
it failed in effecting was accomplished by stat. 9 and 10 Vict, 
c. 64, passed August 18, 1846 ; by virtue of which all 
barristers have equal rights and privileges of practising and 
pleading in the court of Common Pleas witli the Serjeants. 
Few therefore, in the eighteen years that have since passed, 
have taken the old and honoured degree, except for the pur- 
pose of being raised to the judicial bench ; feeling that it is 
now little more than a title, the precedence of those who hold 
it, unless under a special patent, being subject to variation 
by every new appointment of a queen's counsel. No batches 
of Serjeants are now made as of old, adopting one motto and 
providing one feast ; but it has lately become the practice 
for each new serjeant, even when two or three are appointed 
at one time, to attach a separate motto to his ring. Until 
the present reign, indeed until the present year (1864), the 
seijeants who had not a patent of precedence sat during 
term in the outer bar of the queen's bench with the other 
barristers, but in May last, by an order of the court, they 



120 



queen's counsel. 



Vtctobia. 



received the privilege of sitting within the bar with the 
queen's counsel as weU in teim as in vacation. 



Queen's Counsel. 

Inehiding thorn who have Patents of Jhrecedency, 



John Adams (seijeanf). 

Jeflse Addams (Br.) 

J. W. Alezandei. 

K. Allen (serjeant). 

K. P. Amphlett. 

T. 0. AnderdoD. 

T. Andrews (serjeant). 

Kichard Armstrong. 

Robert B. Armstrong. 

J. B. AspinalL 

W, Atherton. 

C Austin. 

J. Bacon. 

R. Baggallay. 

H. R. Bagshaw. 

J. Baily. 

M.T. Bainfis. 

J. T. BaU. 

W. Ballantine (serjeant). 

E. Bazalgette. 
R. Bethell. 
^Bird. 

H. Bliss. 

G. Boden. 

C. C. Bompaa (serjeant). 

W-BoTiU. 

G. W. Bramwell. 

W. B. Brett. 

J. St. G. Burke. 

G. M. Butt. 

Hugh McC. Caims. 

F. Calvert. 
James Campbe 11. 
M. Chambers. 

T. Chambers. 
T. Chandless. 
W. P. Channell (serjeant). 



A. Cleasby. 

A. J. E. Oockbum. 
H. W. Cole. 
J. D. Coleridge. 
R. P. Collier. 
W. A. Collins. 
W. H. Cooke. 
W. Coulson. 
R. D. Craig. 
W. T. S. Daniel. 
J. P. Deane (Dr.) 
— Denison. 
G. Denman. 
W. Dugmore. 

D. Dundas. 
W. Elmriey. 
P.Erie. 

W. Field. 
J. Fleming. 

B. S. Follett, 
W. Forsyth. 
G. M. Giffard. 
S. Girdlestone. 
W. B. Glasse. 
R. Gt)dson. 

F. H. Goldsmith. 

E. Goulbum (serjeant). 
T. C. Granger. 

J. Gray. 

C. S. Greaves, 
T. W. Green. 
J. Greenwood. 
W. R. Grove. 
Russell Gumey. 
C. J. Hargreave. 
H. Hawkins. 

G, Hayes (serjeant). 



1837— 



QUEEN^S COUNSEL. 



121 



W. G. Hayter. 
A. Haywaid, 
T. E. Headlam. 
R. C. HQdyaid. 
Hugh Hill. 
W. M. Hindmarsh. 

A. Hobhouse. 
J. H. Hodgson. 
J. B. Hope. 

J. W. Huddlestone. 

C. A. Hoggins. 
L. C. Humfirey. 
Edward James. 
Edwin James. 
W. M. James. 

B. Ingliam. 
J. J. Johnson. 
J. B. Karslake. 

D. D. Keane. 
H. T. Keating. 
J. R. Kenyon. 

J. A. Kinglake(serjeant). 

C. J. Knowles. 
J. H. Roe. 

J. Lee (Dr.) 
W.Lee. 
G. Lewin. 
W. D. Lewis. 
A. F. 0. LiddeU. 

E. J. Lloyd. 
G. Loch. 

J. Locke. 

W. L. Lowndes. 

E. Ludlow (seijeant). 

R. Lush. 

K. Macaulay. 

J. F. Macqueen. 

R. Malins. 

H. Manisty. 

J. Manning (seijeant). 

S. Martin. 

W. Mathews. 

G. MelHsh. 

J. Mellor.J 



H. A. Merewether. 

H. Mills. - 

J. Monk. 

P. R.O'MaUey. 

J. Osborne. 

W. Overend. 

J. H Palmer. 

R. Palmer. 

J. Parker. 

K S. Parker. 

J. B. Parry. 

J. H. Parry (serjeant). 

R. Pashley. 

B. Peacock. 

J. G. Phillimore. 

R. J. PhUlimore (Dr.) 

T. Phinn. 

C. Phipps. 

J. W. Phipson. 
P. A, Pickering, 
G. Pigott (serjeant). 
J. J. Powell. 

D. Power. 

M. Prendergast. 

E. P. Price. 
T.Purvis. 
G. Richards. 
R. V. Richards. 

B. B. H. Rodwell. 
J. A. Roebuck. 

J. Rolt. 
J, Romilly. 
R. P. Roupell. 
W. 0. Rowe. 
J. Russell. 

C. J. Selwyn. 
W. D. Seymour. 
J. Shapter. 

S. Sharpe. 

W. Shee (serjeant). 

A. M. Skinner. 

F. W. Slade. 
J. W. Smith. 
M. Smith. 



122 WESTMINSTEB HALL— INNS. Victobu. 

T. Southgate. S. Warren. 

A. J. Stephens. W. H. Watson. 

H. Storks (Serjeant). W. Whately. 

J. Stuart C. H. Whiteliurst 

J. C. Talbot. C. J. Whitmore. 

T. N. Talfourd (seijeant). L. T. Wigram. 

J. G. Teed. E. Wilbraham. 

S. Temple. J. P. Wilde. 

S. B. ToUer. C. WiUdns (serjeant). 

W. C. Townsend. J. W. Willcock. 

G. J. Turner. G. Willmore. 

T. Twiss (Dr.) W. P. Wood. 

G. S. Yenables. C. Wordsworth. 

J. Walker. J. A. S. Wortley. 

H. Walpole. D. C. Wrangham (serjeant). 

Westminster Hall was visited on October 18, 1841, with 
an inundation from the waters of the Thames, similar to 
that which occurred in the reign of George II., a century 
before. But as the courts were not sitting at that season, 
the lawyers were not frightened from their propriety bb in 
the former instance. 

In 1845 a conunission was issued to several of the lAore 
experienced judges and legal celebrities to inquire as to the 
expediency of altering the circuits. Except an occasional 
winter assize, it was not till last year (1863) that the re- 
commendations in their report were adopted. An Act of 
Parliament was then passed, under which an Order in Council 
was issued on December 8, 1863, taking away the county of 
York from the Northern circuit, and annexing it to the 
Midland circuit, from which the counties of Northampton, 
Leicester and Kutland were taken away, and annexed to 
the Norfolk circuit. 

In May 1864, a commission was issued with Vice-chan- 
cellor Sir W. Page Wood at the head of it, to inquire into 
the arrangement of the Inns of Court and Chancery for 
promoting the study of the law and jurisprudence and 
^ecuring a sound education to the students. A report was 



1837— Lincoln's inn. 123 

made in August 1855, recording the evidence received from 
the various officers of the different Inns. That given by 
some of the authorities as to the history of their different 
establishments, particularly of the Inner and Middle Temples, 
is as fanciful and unfounded, as might be expected from 
gentlemen, however learned in the law, who have not troubled 
themselves about antiquarian subjects, and therefore have 
merely repeated the old mistakes. This evidence has been 
already noticed in a previous volume of this work.* 

The report gave a very favourable account of the state of 
the principal societies ; and of the examinations and attend- 
ance on lectures required in each of them. The four Inns 
of Court have during the last year (1863) conjointly pro- 
mulgated some excellent regulations as to the admission of 
students to their respective societies, and the preparation 
necessary for their call to the bar. These, with the rewards 
and honours offered to the most deserving candidates, form a 
ground for hoping that the future generation of lawyers 
will, like their predecessors, still deserve to be designated a 
** learned body." 

Lincoln's Inn. — The old hall of this society being 
found insufficient for the accommodation of the increased 
number of members, both barristers and students, it was 
resolved to erect a new edifice, and a great part of the 
gardens was selected for the purpose, abutting on Lincoln's 
Inn fields. The first stone was laid on April 20, 1843, by 
Vice-chancellor Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce, the trea- 
surer of the Inn, who impressively addressed the numerous 
assembly who attended the ceremonial. The old hall was 
destined at that time for the library. A brass plate with the 
following inscription in old English characters was deposited 
with the usual coins : 

» VoL V. 22, 24-27. See also the History of the Inns, in vol. It. and 
Bobseqaent yolnmes. 



124 Lincoln's inn. Victobia. 

^'Stet Lapis, Arboribus oudo defixus in HortO| 
Fundamen pulchne TempUB in omne Dom^. 
Aula yetos lites et Iieg:ani iEnigmata servet, 
Ipsa nova exoiior nobilitanda coquo. 
Xn Cal. MaiL MDCOCXLIIL 

This inscription was thus humorously translated by Sir 

George Bose : 

Tbe trees of yore 

Are seen no more, 
Unshaded now the garden lies ; 

May the red bricks 

Which here we fix 
Be lasting as our equities. 

The olden dome 

With musty tome 
Of law and litigation suits ; 

In this we look 

For a better Cook 
Than he who wrote the ' Institutes.' *' 

The new hall took two years in buildings at a cost^ 
including furniture and fittings^ of about 88,000Z. The 
architect^ Mr. Philip Hardwicke, adopted the Tudor style of 
architecture^ and produced a most beautiful and striking 
edifice. Its opening on October 30, 1845, was honoured 
with the presence of her Majesty ; a compliment highly 
appreciated, as no royal visit had been paid to Lincoln's Inn 
since King Charles II. attended Sir Francis Goodrich the 
reader's festival in 1671. A most august ceremony followed, 
in which the Queen and the late Prince Consort and several 
noblemen in their suite entered their names in the admission 
book of the society, and a splendid entertainment was pro- 
* vided, of which her Majesty partook in the presence of the 
assembled members. One of the greatest gratifications 
enjoyed by the latter was the hearty burst of genuine 
laughter in which her Majesty could not help indulging on 
the first sight of the long ranks of be-gowned and be-wigged 



1837— THE TEMPLES. 126 

old barristers giving unrestrained expression to their exu- 
berant loyalty, as if they were so many boys. The Queen 
showed her satisfaction by drinking to the ** Prosperity of the 
Honourable Society," and by knighting its treasurer. Sir J. A. 
Francis Simpkinson. A few days afterwards Prince Albert 
was called both to the bar and the bench, and in the latter 
character he joined his new colleagues on the grand day of 
the following Trinity term. 

The hall subsequently was decorated by a fresco painting 
which occupies the whole end above the benchers' table. Its 
design is the " School of Legislation," introducing all the 
great early law-givers from Moses to Edward L It was 
executed by Mr. George Frederick Watts, who offered to 
undertake it at no other expense to the society than that of 
material, scaffolding, &c. On its completion, after six years' 
labour, the society, not to be outdone in generosity, enter- 
tained the artist at dinner in April 1860, and presented him 
with a very beautiful and valuable silver cup; under the 
cover of which was a purse containing five hundred new 
sovereigns. 

The old hall, in which the society formerly dined and the 
lord chancellor held his sittings, is now divided into two 
courts, one of which is appropriated to the lord chancellor, 
and the other to the lords justices of Appeal. 

The Temple. — The two societies, for whose religious 
services the Temple Church is appropriated, having resolved 
upon its restoration, devoted a very large sum of money for 
the purpose, sparing no expense to restore its former mag- 
nificence. On its completion in 1843 it was visited by the 
Queen Dowager, being the only queen who had entered the 
precincts of the Temple since the days of Elizabeth. A few 
days afterwards the Duke of Cambridge and other members 
of the royal family attended divine service in the church: and 
both of the august parties expressed the highest admiration 



126 MIDDLE TEMPLE. Victoria. 

at the taste and splendour with which the reyival had been 
effected. 

At the end of twenty years fiirther improyements were 
undertaken ; and several of the surrounding chambers were 
suppressed in order to isolate the church; so that it can now 
be viewed in all its original beauty. 

Inner Temple. — Most of the Inns of Court have been 
complimented in this reign by the visits of royalty. In 
July 1843 the late King of Hanoyer^ the queen's uncle^ was 
entertained with a magnificent banquet in the hall of this 
society, under the presidency of Sir Charles Wetherell, the 
senior bencher, and in the presence of a large party of noble 
and learned personages. 

Middle Temple. — On the visit of the royal personages 
in May 1843 to view the restoration of the church they 
partook of a dejeuner in this hall ; and when the new library 
was finished, its opening was inaugurated by the heir-ap- 
parent to the throne. 

More extended accommodation for the students being 
required to pursue the studies rendered necessary by the 
greater stringency of examinations lately adopted to secure 
a competent knowledge in the candidates for the bar, the 
benchers generously determined to erect an entirely new 
library. The spot they selected was the west end of their 
gardens ; and the erection is in the Gothic style, in dimen- 
sions and arrangements well adapted to the purpose. The 
first stone was laid in 1858, and it took three years in 
building, at a cost of about 13,000/. On its completion His 
Royal Highness the young Prince of Wales having complied 
with the request to preside at its opening, the most splendid 
preparations were made to do honour to this his first ap- 
pearance on a public occasion. On November 1, 1861, the 
prince having first undergone the formalities of being ad« 
mitted a member of the Inn, of being called to the bar, and 



i8a7— Clement's and lyon's inn. 127 

of being elected a bencher^ headed a solemn procession from 
the hall to the new library, under a covered way erected for 
the purpose, where the treasurer, J. Anderson, Esq., Q.C., 
read to him a loyal and affectionate address, which he 
luiswered with great grace and propriety. Having declared 
the library to be open, he proceeded thence to the Temple 
Church, where a special choral service was performed. On 
its termination he partook of a magnificent banquet in the 
splendid hall of the society, and charmed the assembled 
company with his affability and gracefulness. In the course 
of the entertainment he rose, and wishing prosperity to the 
profession gave as a toast, " Domus." Every member of the 
Inn joined in the ceremony and partook of the entertainment ; 
and numerous were the guests invited, including the lord 
chancellor and all the judges. Those who could not be 
accommodated in the hall, were provided for in a handsome 
marquee, which covered the whole area of Fountain Court. 
The enthusiasm with which the prince was greeted was 
gratifying to the feelings of all, and he must have ex- 
perienced on his departure from the hall a solid satisfaction 
in the devoted loyalty he witnessed both to him and his 
royal mother. The day terminated with a brilliant conver- 
sazione in the library. 

Clement's Inn. — In the report of the commissioners in 
1855, it is stated that the Inn then consisted of a principal, 
eight antients, and only six commoners ; all solicitors ; and 
that the chambers are their property, vested in the names of 
twelve trustees. 

Lyon's Inn. — The same report mentions that this Inn 
was private property belonging to two individuals called 
antients, who had by degrees purchased all the chambers, 
subject to an annual rent of 7/. 13^. 4rf. payable to the Inner 
Temple ; that the hall was then let to debating societies, &c., 
£|nd that the chambers were let out to the profit of the pro- 



128 INNS— ATT0ENEY8 AND SOLICITOBS. VictobU. 

prietorg. As might be expected from its decayed condition 
both in substance and respectability^ within eight years the 
*^ Inn " has been entirely demolished^ and from its ashes is 
about to arise a giant " Hotel," one of those speculations now 
loading the newspapers, by which London professes to pro* 
yide accommodation for all the country. 

New Inn. — Here by the report of 1855 it appears that 
the readings from the Middle Temple ceased in 1846 : that, 
though by the constitution there ought to be four tables, 
namely, the head table, for the treasurer and antients ; the 
round table ; the first mess ; and the long table ; there are 
practically only two tables — the antients' table and the roimd 
table — and that the members are principally attorneys. 

Babnabd's Inn. — In the same report it is stated that in 
1855 there were a principal, nine antients and five com- 
panions belonging to this house, all of them being solicitors 
or clerks in court ; and that, according to the belief of the 
witness, no reader had come from Gray's Inn for 200 years. 

Staple Inn. — The limited number of antients in this 
house is twelve; but in 1855 there were only eight; and the 
number of juniors did not exceed a dozen ; all of whom must 
be attorneys. The witness considered that the house had 
no connection with any Inn of Court, except that the 
antients are asked to breakfast in Gray's Inn, when a mem- 
ber of that body is called Serjeant. Another witness says 
that for the sixty years he remembers the Inn there has been 
no reader sent from Gray's Inn. 

By a most important act passed in the year 1843, stat. 6 & 7 
Vict. c. 83, the former acts relating to attorneys and solicitors, 
extending to the inconvenient number of thirty-one, were 
repealed, and the various provisions in them were consoli- 
dated or amended. The examination into the legal fitness 
and capacity of the candidates for admission was duly regu- 
lated; and their rights and responsibilities when admitted 



1837— ATTOKNXrS AXD SOLICITORS. 129 

fvllj declared. A new officer was also established by the 
act, called the registrar of attorneys and solicitors, by whom an 
alphabetical roll of those admitted and entitled to practise was 
to be kept. The duties of this office were in the first instance 
to be executed by the Incorporated Law Society, unless and 
until the three chiefs of the courts of Queen s Bench, Com- 
mon Pleas, and Exchequer, with the master of the Rolls, 
should appoint any other person in the place of the said 
society ; a power which they have not deemed it necessary, 
and which they are not likely, to exercise, while the society "s 
functions are so effectively performed as at present. 



VOL. IX. 



130 



BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES 



OP 



THE JUDGES UNDER THE REIGN OF VICTORIA. 



ABINGER, LORD. See J. Scarlett. 
ALDERSON, EDWARD HALL. 

B. E. 1837. 
See under tho Beign of William lY. 

The first additional judge in the Common Pleas under the 
new act passed at the commencement of the reign of William 
I Y. was Edward Hall Alderson^ whose success as a barrister 
had long pointed him out for promotion. His father^ Robert 
Alderson^ Esq.^ was an eminent member of the same pro- 
fession^ recorder of Norwich, Ipswich, and Yarmouth, and 
his mother, who died while he was yet an infant, was the 
daughter of Samuel Hurry, Esq., of the latter place. He 
was bom there on September 11, 1787, and, after "spending 
a short time at Scarning School near Dereham, where Lord 
Thurlow commenced his education, and trying the Charter- 
house, where his health failed him, he was removed to the 
Grammar School of Bury St. Edmunds, and subsequently 
had the advantage of the private tuition of Dr. Maltby, 
afterwards Bishop of Durham. His progress was so great 
and his intelligence so marked, that the highest expectations 
were formed of his college career ; and so self-conscious was 
he of his own talents and acquiremeuts, that he afterwards 



1837— EDWARD HALL ALDERSON. 131 

acknowledged that if anyone had offered him on entering the 
university the place ot second wrangler, he would at once have 
refused it. Thus well prepared he entered Caius College, 
Cambridge, in 1805, and by his indomitable perseverance and 
extraordinary genius he not only achieved the success his 
friends had prophesied, but exceeded hig own prognostications, 
obtaining, besides the anticipated place of senior wrangler, the 
additional distinction of first Smith's prizeman and senior 
medaUist, the highest honours which his imiversity could give 
both in classics and mathematics, and a triple glory which few 
had previously obtained. During his progress through the 
university he also gained Sir Thomas Browne's medal for the 
best Greek and Latin epigrams, and the members' prize for 
the Latin Essay. In 1809 he took his degree as bachelor 
and in 1812 that of master of arts, and as a natural con- 
sequence of his brilliant success was elected fellow of his 
college. 

Having entered the Inner Temple he became a pupil of 
Mr. Chitty, and in 1811 was called to the bar. He selected 
the Northern circuit and York sessions, his family having 
originally belonged to that district, where, his Cambridge 
character preceding him, he was welcomed by Mr. Brougham 
and the other eminent members of the bar. At Manchester 
he received his " Soup Ticket," as the brief, which it is the 
custom there to give to every young barrister, is called, and 
gradually got a fair share of business, so that he had no 
cause to complain of neglect at the outset of his career. In 
1817 on the termination of the Beports of Maule and Selwyn, 
he joined with Mr. Barnewall in their continuation for the 
five succeeding years, when the demands of business being 
greatly increased both at Westminster and on circuit he felt 
obliged to relinquish that employment to Mr. (afterwards 
Justice) Cresswell. In 1823 he married Georglna, daughter 
of the Bev. Edward Drewe of Broadhembury, Devonshire. 

K 2 



132 EDWARD HALL ALDERSON. ViCTOBiA. 

He thence went on with rapid strides, and with such in- 
crease of employment and reputation that in 1828 he was 
appointed one of the commissioners for the amendment of 
the law. So much in demand were his services on the 
circuit that he was engaged in almost every important cause, 
being frequently leader, and as he himself described his 
position, ** Heir-apparent to the crown, upon the departure 
of the present holders." At this time the act before referred 
to was passed, and though he never had a silk gown, nor the 
advantage of- a seat in parliament, he was at once selected 
from the outer bar for his acknowledged ability, as one of the 
three judges then added to the old number of twelve. He 
was first placed in the Common Pleas in November 1830, 
receiving of course the honour of knighthood. He remained 
in that court three years and three months, and was then, in 
February 1834, removed with his own consent to the Ex- 
chequer, where he performed the double duties on the equity 
and common law side till the former was transferred into 
Chancery by an enactment in 1841. 

The only fault that has been found with him as a judge 
arose from the quickness of insight into the questions before 
him, which sometimes led him into too rapid a judgment of 
their real merits, producing a degree of impatience against 
those whose duty it was to argue against his preconceived 
opinions. Yet notwithstanding this failing he was in the 
main a popular judge, especially with juries ; and while 
sitting in Banco he had much influence in the decisions of 
the court. His reasoning in the latter was deep, solid, and 
acute ; and his relish of fun and his occasional witticisms on 
the bench no doubt made him a general favourite at Nisi 
Prius. Even in Banco he could not always refrain. Once 
a counsel on applying for a nolle prosequi, pronounced the 
penultimate syllable long; ^* Stop, sir," said the baron, "con- 
sider that this is the last day of term, and don't make things 



1837— GEORGE BANKES. 133 

unnecessarily long." At an assize town a juryman said to 
the clerk who was administering the oath to him, ^^ Speak up, 
I cannot hear what you say." The baron asked him if he 
was deaf, and on the juryman answering *^ Yes, with one 
ear," replied '^ Well then you may leave the box, for it is 
necessary that jurymen should hear both sides.^ 

With all this spirit of drollery, he was essentially of a 
serious and religious disposition; cordially loved in his 
private life, and highly esteemed and respected by the bar. 
He employed his leisure in the renewal of his early studies, 
and was himself a graceful poet. Several of his fugitive 
pieces, some of which are addressed to his literary cousin and 
frequent correspondent, Mrs. Opie, are introduced into an in- 
teresting memoir of his life, published by his son soon after 
his death. That event occurred on January 27, 1857, in his 
seventieth year, when he had been on the bench more than 
six and twenty yeAs. His remains lie in the churchyard of 
Risby near Bury, his brother's living.* 

BANKES, GEORGE. 

Cubs. B. E. 1837. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and William IV. 

On the death of Francis Maseres, Esq., who had held the 
oflSce of cursitor baron for above fifty years, George Bankes, 
Esq., was appointed his successor on July 6th, 1824. He 
was the lineal descendant of the great chief justice of Charles 
I., who spelled his name without the penultimate letter e. 
The cursitor baron was the third son of Henry Bankes, 
Esq., of Kingston Hall, Dorsetshire, who represented Corfe 
Castle from 1780 to 1826, and then was elected mem- 
ber for the county till 1831, His mother was Frances 
daughter of William Woodley, Esq., governor of the Lee- 

' Selections from the Charges, &c., of Baron Alderson (1858). 



134 RICHARD BETHELL. Victoria. 

ward Islands. He was a member of Trinity Hall in the 
University of Cambridge^ and studied the law at first at 
Lincoln's Inn and then at the Inner Temple, by which 
society he was called to the bar in April 1815. Before 
receiving the appointment of cursitor baron he had had little 
opportunity to acquire any eminence in the profession. He 
continued to perform the duties of his office, which at last 
consisted of little more than joining in the Michaelmas 
solemnities of the sheriffalty of London, till his death in 
1856, having held the position of judge advocate general 
during the short administration of Lord Derby in 1852. 
No one was appointed to succeed him as cursitor baron, and 
the office was immediately abolished. 

Succeeding eventually by the death of his brother to the 
family estates, he was chosen member for the county of 
Dorset, which he represented till his death ; and was further 
honoured by being placed on the Privy CBuncil. He died on 
July 6, 1856, leaving issue by his wife Georgina Charlotte, 
daughter and heir of Admiral Edmund Charles Nugent. 

BETHELL, RICHARD, Lord Westbury. 

LOBD CHANa 1861. 

RiCHABD Bethell, Baron Westbury, is the present lord 
high chancellor of Great Britain, having held the Great Seal 
since 1861, and having previously filled in succession the 
two crown offices of solicitor and attorney-general. He was 
bom at Bradford in Wiltshire, on June 30, 1800, and his 
father, Dr. Richard Bethell, who was a descendant from the 
old Welsh family of Ap-Ithell, practised as a physician at 
Bristol. From Bristol Grammar School he proceeded at the 
age of fourteen to Wadham College, Oxford, of which he 
was afterwards elected fellow, having distinguished himself 
by attaining a place in the first class in classics, and in the 



1837— RICHARD BETHELL. 135 

second class In mathematics. He took his B. A. degree when 
only eighteen^ and then became for some time a favourite 
tutor in the university. Selecting the law as his profession^ 
he entered the Middle Temple^ and after the usual interval 
was called to the bar on November 28, 1823. 

For seventeen years he laboured as a junior counsel in the 
court of Chancery, where his practice was very considerable ; 
and in 1840 he attained the rank of queen's counsel, in 
which character he soon acquired a most prominent lead. 
His university employed him as their advocate ; and he filled 
the oflSce of vice-chancellor of the county palatine of Lancas- 
ter. While engaged in his vicarious duties as a barrister, he 
devoted himself to the improvement of the mode of legal 
education, his exertions in which are beyond all praise. A 
committee of the benchers of all the four Inns was formed, of 
which he was the prime mover and selected chairman ; and 
a body of rules was issued for the admission, regulation, and 
instruction of the students, which promise the most satis- 
factory results. 

From the year 1851 till his elevation to the peerage, he 
was a member of the House of Commons ; at first for the 
borough of Aylesbury, and then for that of Wolverhampton.- 
Throughout his senatorial career he supported the liberal 
party : and on the retirement of Lord Derby's ministry he 
was knighted on his appointment as solicitor-general on 
December 28, 1852, Sir Alexander Cockburn being the attor- 
ney-general. When the latter was promoted,' Sir Richard 
was nominated attorney-general in November 1856 ; but 
resigning in February 1858 on the change of ministry, 
he resumed it sixteen months after, in June 1859, on his 
party returning to power. In 1860 he was honoured by his 
university with the degree of D.C.L. 

On the death of Lord Chancellor Campbell, Sir Richard 
was invested with his present high office on June 26, 1861 ; 



136 HENRY BICKER8TETH. Victoria. 

and in the dispensation of his patronage the author has heard 
of several kind and considerate acts. With his unquestioned 
superiority in legal and judicial attainments^ let us hope that^ 
when the fluctuation of parties removes him from the wool- 
sack, he will retire with as high a character in all other 
respects as in those^ and with as bright a reputation as any 
of his predecessors. 

By his wife, the daughter of the late Robert Abraham, 
Esq. (whom he had the misfortune to lose in the present 
year), he has a iiumerous family. 




BICKERSTETH, HENRY, Lord Langdalb. 

M. R. 1837. Com. G. S. 1850. 
See under the Reign of William IV. 

Of this amiable man and conscientious judge, to whom the 
first two volumes of this work were dedicated, and whose death 
ere the third volume was published the author had cause to 
lament, so full an intimation of the general excellencies and 
of the peculiar characteristics was given in the passages 
referred to, that the sketch about to be offered must neces- 
sarily comprehend little more than a simple detail of facts, 
which will amply justify the opinions there submitted.* 

Lord Langdale was bom on June 18, 1783, at Kirkby 
Lonsdale, and was the third of five sons of Mr. Henry 
Bickersteth, a medical practitioner of considerable repute in 
that town, and of Elizabeth the daughter of Mr. John 
Batty, a farmer of the same place, and the sister of Dr. 
Batty afterwards so eminent sua a physician in London. To 
the moral and religious feelings impressed on his mind by 
his mother, he always ascribed what was praiseworthy in 

' For most of these facts I am principallj indebted to the valuable memoir 
of Lord Langdale, published bj Thomas Duffus Hardy, Esq., whose readj aid 
during the progress of the earlier and more recondite parts of this v^ork it has 
been gratifying to me frequently to acknowledge. 



1837— HENRY BICKERSTETH. 137 

his future career. After passing through the Free Grammar 
School of his native place, and concluding his studies there 
with the highest prize, he entered his father's business at 
Midsummer, 1797 ; and in the autumn of the next year 
went to London to walk the hospitals under the guidance of 
his uncle Dr. Batty. Here he devoted himself sedulously 
to his studies, and endeavoured to master the science of his 
profession, though he began very early to show a repugnance 
to its practice. To perfect himself in its knowledge he went 
to Edinburgh in October 1801, and had the advantage of 
attending the lectures of the eminent professors who then 
presided over the medical schools. He became a member of 
the Royal Medical Society, and distinguished himself in their 
debates by his eloquence, ingenuity, and energy. In the 
summer of the next year he was called home for the purpose 
of supplying the place of his father, whose health required 
a temporary absence from his professional duties. This ex- 
perience confirmed his dislike to becoming a mere country 
practitioner, and induced him to decline his father's offer to 
give up the whole of his business to him. 

With the intent therefore of preparing himself for the Lon- 
don practice of a physician, he entered Caius College, Cam- 
bridge, in October of that year, with a scholarship on Mr. 
Hewitt's foundation. The application to his studies there was 
so intense, that he was seized with a serious illness when he 
went to London at the end of the term. His recovery was 
slow, and total relaxation became necessary to ensure it. 
With this view his uncle Dr. Batty, fully satisfied as to his 
qualifications for the office, recommended him as medical 
attendant to the family of the Earl of Oxford, then on a tour 
in Italy, whom he started to join at the end of March 1803. 

While at Florence the war with France broke out, and he 
and his noble friends had some difficulty in escaping the 
clutches of Bonaparte in his disgraceful seizure of all 



138 HENRY BICKER8TETH. Victoria. 

English travellers. After remaining some little time at 
Venice, Vienna, and Dresden, the continuance of the war 
induced Lord Oxford to return home : when his lordship 
experienced the benefit of the medical selection he had 
made, by being safely brought through a serious illness 
under the care and skiU of his youthful adviser. Though 
proving himself a great proficient in the science, and taking 
great delight in the investigation of its mysteries, as is par- 
ticularly apparent in his correspondence with Dr. Henderson, 
Mr. Bickersteth retained his dislike to the profession, and, 
determining to relinquish it, returned to Cambridge in 1805 ; 
where, after abandoning a passing desire to enter the army, 
he resolved to study for a degree in arts ; though his long 
absence and great deficiency in mathematical knowledge 
were much against him. But his indefatigable industry and 
quick perception overcame all disadvantages: so that in 
January 1808 he graduated B.A. as senior wrangler and 
senior Smith's prizeman, in a year when he had no mean 
competitors to conquer, his principal opponents being Miles 
Bland, Bishop Blomfield, and Professor Sedgwick. He was 
of course immediately rewarded with a fellowship in his 
college ; and fixing upon the law as his profession, he entered 
the Inner Temple as a student on April 8, 1808, and soon 
after became a pupil of Mr. Bell, one of the most eminent 
counsel in the court of Chancery. 

.The tendency of Mr, Bickersteth's mind was always to 
the liberal side of politics, and though his extreme opinions 
were much moderated by witnessing the tyrannical sequence 
of the French revolution, he still continued something more 
than a whig. Having while abroad formed an acquaintance 
with Mr. Jones Burdett, he on his return to England con- 
tracted a friendly intimacy with his brother Sir Francis. 
When the baronet was committed to the Tower by the 
speaker's warrant in May 1810, Mr. Bickersteth was his 



1837— HENRY BICKERSTETH. 139 

first visitor there ; and when in June his time of release 
arrived, he carried him off from his prison in a boat, in order 
to escape the mob that was collected, and to avoid the pro- 
cession intended to celebrate his liberation. Becoming also 
a friend and disciple of Jeremy Bentham, Mr. Bickersteth 
received from his conversation the first impressions of the 
necessity of amendment in the administration of the laws. 
He was thus enlisted into the band of law reformers, 
eventually producing those efforts to which his name is 
allied. 

The period of his preparatory studies having terminated, 
he was called to the bar on November 22, 1811 ; and in the 
same year he took his degree of M.A. For the next three 
or four years, in the want of professional connection, he had 
to contend against the usual slow progress of a barrister at 
the outset of his career, and even meditated giving up the 
profession rather than put his father to further expense. His 
circumstances were somewhat improved in 1814 by becoming 
a senior fellow of his college, and his business gradually in- 
creased. But his known connection with the philosopher 
Bentham and the politician Burdett, then deemed radicals, 
and particularly his support of the latter against Sir Samuel 
Romilly at the Westminster election of 1818, for a time 
proved an impediment to his success, which however by 
steady perseverance and moderation he was soon enabled to 
remove. In the next year he was offered a seat in parlia- 
ment, which from conscientious and prudential motives he 
declined. 

With his business his reputation advanced, and he was 
considered so conversant with the practice of his court and 
so alive to its defects, that he was called upon to give 
evidence before the commissioners appointed in 1824 to 
investigate the subject. In his examination, which lasted 
four days, he boldly pointed out the evils that attached to 



140 HENRY BICKER8TETH. Victoria. 

the whole system, and suggested several remedies, some of 
which were eventually adopted. His evidence, though 
thought by some to be too comprehensive and visionary, was 
generally regarded with attention and respect, and was 
particularly lauded by the great oracle of legal reform, 
Bentham ; and from that time all parties really desirous of 
amending the course of justice applied to him as an authority. 
Among others Sir John Copley, then attorney-general, re- 
quested his assistance in 1820, when preparing a bill for 
reforming the court of Chancery ; and in 1827, when ap- 
pointed lord chancellor, recommended him to the king as one 
of his counsel, which he was appointed in May, and was 
then called to the bench of his Inn. 

In this character he was so fully employed, that he was 
at length obliged to give up all practice in other courts, and 
to confine himself to the Bolls, and he actually refused to 
break his resolution, though tempted to go into the Exche- 
quer in the great case of Small v. Attwood, by a fee of 
3000 guineas. 

When the ministry of Lord Grey came in, and an Act passed 
for erecting a court of Bankruptcy in 1831, Mr. Bickersteth 
was offered the chief judgeship of it ; but he at once declined 
it, as he disapproved its establishment, and thought it would 
be wholly inefficient; and in February 1834, he also refused 
to accept the vacant office of a baron of the Exchequer, 
which Lord Lyndhurst, then lord chief baron, was desirous 
that he should fill, from a conscientious feeling that as an 
equity judge of that court, for which he was intended, 
he could not efficiently perform the common-law duties 
which would in addition devolve upon him. In April of 
that year he created no slight sensation by a bitter rebuke 
he gave to Lord Chancellor Brougham in his answer to his 
lordship's question, what was to prevent the University of 
London conferring degrees, without the authority of an Act 



1837— HENRY BICKERSTETH. 141 

of Parliament ? to which he replied, " The utter scorn and 
contempt of the world." This and the following year were 
remarkable in Mr. Bickersteth's history. In September he 
refused the offer of the solicitor-generalship made to him by 
Lord Brougham, though it was afterwards more regularly 
urged upon him by Lord Melbourne the prime minister. 
On the dissolution of that ministry at the end of the year 
he was pressed by a large body of electors to stand for the 
borough of Marylebone, but finding that he was expected to 
pledge himself to support certain measures, he not only 
refused to be nominated, but wrote a letter denouncing the 
demand of pledges and promises from any candidate as both 
improper and impolitic. 

In April of the next year Sir Robert Peel's administration 
in its turn succumbed, and Lord Melbourne came in again. 
Lord Brougham not being restored to his former place, the 
Great Seal was temporarily put in commission. But this 
expedient exciting great discontent, both in the bar and the 
public, Mr. Bickersteth, by Lord Melbourne's request, sent 
his opinion in writing of what ought to be done. This 
valuable and comprehensive paper contained a synoptical 
view of the various duties that then devolved on the lord 
chancellor, and the evils necessarily consequent upon them ; 
with excellent suggestions for the relief of that great oflScer ; 
which in a few years led, among other things, to the removal 
of the equity business of the court of Exchequer, and the 
appointment of two additional vice-chancellors. In August 
Mr. Bickersteth married Lady Jane Harley, the daughter 
of his old friend and patron the Earl of Oxford. In the 
following December Lord Melbourne communicated to him 
the intention to put an end to the commission and to appoint 
the master of the Rolls, Sir Charles C. Pepys, lord chan- 
cellor, offering Mr. Bickersteth Sir Charles's vacant seat at 
the Rolls, and urging him to accept a peerage in order that 



142 HENRY BICKERSTETH. ViCTORU. 

he might in parliament assist in carrying into effect his 
views for the reformation of the courts of equity. Mr. 
Bickersteth^ though agreeing to accept the judicial office^ 
hesitated to do so if united with a peerage. His objections 
however were ultimately removed, and he consented to enter 
the House of Lords upon the express terms, fully understood 
and agreed to by the minister, of perfect political inde- 
pendence. 

The nomination gave universal satisfaction to the bar, 
with whom he was most popular, and to none more so than 
to his old friend and master Mr. Bell, then in his last illness. 
He was sworn of the Privy Council on January 16, 1835, 
and on the 19th and 23rd he received his two patents, the 
former constituting him master of the Rolls, and the latter 
creating him Baron Langdale of Langdale in the coimty of 
Westmoreland. 

Acting on the imderstanding on which he had accepted 
the peerage, he abstained in parliament from interfering in 
party conflicts as inconsistent with his judicial office to do so ; 
and devoted himself wholly to the consideration of the various 
schemes of legal reform, not hesitating, when they did not 
meet his approval, to state his objections, whether introduced 
by liberal or conservative legislators. To every bill that 
tended to render justice more easily accessible, and to 
diminish its expense, he gave a most hearty support ; and 
urged with unanswerable arguments the injustice and im- 
policy of taxing the suitor with fees towards the establish- 
ment and support of the courts and their officers. He 
himself introduced several bills of great moment, some 
effecting substantial changes in the law and its administra- 
tion ; and others making important alterations in the mode 
of transacting Chancery business ; but he never undertook 
the management of any of them without carefully considering 
whether the evil complained of would be effectually remedied 



1837— HENRY BICKEB8TETH. 143 

by the supposed improvement, and without takings care that 
the holders of oflSces abolished were duly compensated for 
their loss. In two or three of these measures the writer of 
these pages had a personal opportunity of witnessing and 
admiring the extreme care Lord Langdale exercised in their 
preparation, and the great interest and anxiety he evinced in 
their progress and success. He lived to see the good effects 
of many of the measures he promoted. 

As a judge he was remarkable for the strictness of proof 
he required on every point submitted to his decision, for the 
unwearied attention he paid to all the arguments urged on 
either side, and for the careful preparation and logical cor- 
rectness of his judgments. By his own dignified example 
he made his court a model of propriety and respectful de- 
meanour, and all attempts at professional fraud, or trickery, 
or any inexcusable neglect, were effectually suppressed by 
the dread of his stem denunciation. His judicial duties 
were not confined to his own court, but were greatly 
increased by his attendance on the judicial committee of the 
Privy Council, of which he was often the presiding member. 
The case which occasioned him most trouble and anxiety 
there was that of the Rev. Mr. Gorham r. the Bishop of 
Exeter (Dr. Phillpotts), being an appeal of the former against 
the decision of Sir Herbert Jenner Fust in the Ecclesiastical 
court, in favour of the bishop, who had refused to institute 
Mr. Gorham to the vicarage of Brampton Speke in Devon- 
shire, because he did not coincide with the bishop's views 
on a certain point of doctrine with relation to Baptism, on 
which the members of the Church of England were divided. 
After five days' patient hearing, the committee, with the 
concurrence of the archbishops of Canterbury and York, 
pronounced a reversal of the judgment of Sir Herbert Jenner 
Fust, declaring that the doctrine held by Mr. Gorham was not 
contrary or repugnant to the declared doctrine of the Church 



144 HENRY BICKEB8TETH. ViCTORIl. 

of England. After three vexatious and futile attempts made 
by the bishop to overturn this judgment upon merely technical 
points^ Mr. Gorham was at last instituted into his incumbency. 
Upon that judgment^ which was prepared by Lord Lang- 
dale^ it is astonishing what labour and research he bestowed. 
Aware of the deep interest taken by the religious world in 
the decision^ he was most careful in stating fully the grounds 
on which it was founded, to avoid giving offence to either 
party; disclauning any intention to decide whether the 
doctrine of the one or the other was sound or unsound, but 
confining it to the mere legal question whether Mr. Gorham's 
objection to assent to the bishop's view of it was or was not 
contrary to law. It was a very learned and elaborate paper, 
and naturally occasioned a severe controversy between the 
parties interested on one side or the other. 

Not contented with these labours he devoted himself with 
indefatigable industry to cleanse the Augean stable of the 
public records, which justly gained for him the title of 
Father of Record Reform. His continued endeavours 
through the whole of his official life to induce the govern- 
ment to devote the proper attention to, and to provide the 
requisite funds for, this important and national object, are 
fully recorded in the memoir of Mr. Duffiis Hardy, who was 
one of his most efficient assistants in the undertaking. The 
perseverance with which he pressed the necessity of pro- 
viding an adequate repository for the preservation of the 
monuments of the kingdom, and the unwearied patience with 
which he met the difficulties and answered the repeated ob- 
jections raised, were at last rewarded by the adoption of the 
plan he proposed. To the universal approval of those who 
are interested, and to the benefit conferred on the statesman, 
the biographer, and the historian, as well as on the lawyer, 
by the facility of reference afforded, I have already alluded 
in the dedication to my first volume and in the introduction 



18£7— HENRY BICKERSTETH. 145 

to my third ; and I doubt not that were he now alive he 
would be grateful to his learned successor Sir John Bomilly 
for the able and effective manner in which he has carried on 
and completed the work. 

As a trustee and commissioner of the British Museum^ and 
as the head of the Registration and Conveyancing Commis- 
sion, he devoted himself with the same ardour to the several 
questions submitted to them respectively. In none of these 
employments, whether judicial or inquisitorial, was he an 
idle or formal looker-on. He was careful in collecting every 
shadow of information, in noting all the evidence, and in 
methodising the materials, on which either his judgments or 
reports were to be founded : and the several papers he sup- 
plied for the latter purpose not only prove his unwearied 
industry but are evidences of his logical discrimination and 
arrangement. 

That this continued exercise of the brain should have a 
detrimental effect on his health was to be expected; and 
therefore it is not to be wondered at, with his high prin- 
ciples and strict feelings of honour, that when, on Lord 
Cottenham's retirement in May 1850, the office of lord 
chancellor was pressed upon him, he refused to accept it, 
convinced that he could not adequately perform the multi- 
farious duties attached to the place, nor hope to eflPect the 
reforms which he contemplated. But during the chancellor's 
previous illness Lord Langdale undertook his duties as 
Speaker of the House of Lords, and on his resignation 
consented to act as the head of the commission temporarily 
issued for the custody of the Great Seal till a lord chancel- 
lor was appointed. The Seal was delivered to him and to 
Sir Lancelot Shadwell and Baron Rolfe on June 19, 1850, 
and they held it till July 15, when Sir Thomas Wilde was 
appointed lord chancellor and created Lord Truro. The 
great labour thrown on Lord Langdale by this addition to 

VOL. IX. L 



146 COLIN BLACKBURN. Victoria. ♦ 

« 

his ordinary duties, with the unfortunate illness by which 
his brother conunissioner Sir Lancelot Shadwell was in- 
capacitated, had a palpable effect on his health and strength, 
and brought on a serious illness. On his partial recovery 
he found that he must relieye himself from the burden of 
office, which, with the sincere regret of his bar, affectionately 
expressed by Mr. (afterwards Lord Justice) Turner, he re- 
signed on March 28, 1851, after more than fifteen years of 
judicial life. No sooner was the sorrowful parting completed 
than his health wholly succumbed, and in three weeks he 
closed his mortal career. He died at Tunbridge Wells on 
April 18, 1851, and was buried in the Temple Church. 

A man with higher principle, greater integrity, more 
fixed in his purpose to do right, more unwearied in his 
attempts to discover the truth, more regardless of self, and 
with a kinder nature, it would be difficult to find. Whether 
in the capacity of an advocate, a judge, a legislator, or in the 
sacred seclusion of private and domestic life, he secured the 
admiration, the respect, and the devoted affection of all. 

He left no son to inherit his honours ; but his lady and an 
only daughter still survive to venerate his memory. 

BLACKBURN, COLIN. 

Just. Q. B. 1859. 

Sib Colin Blackburn is how one of the judges of the 
Queen's Bench. He was bom at Levenside in Dumbarton- 
shire in 1813, being the second son of John Blackburn, 
Esq., of Eillearn in Stirlingshire. After passing through 
Eton College he matriculated at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
where he was eighth wrangler in 1835 and took his degree 
of M. A. in 1838. In Michaelmas term of the same year he 
was called to the bar by the society of the Inner Temple ; 
and joined the Northqm circuit, attending the Liverpool 



18S7— WILLIAM HOLLAND. 147 

sessions. Though with no considerable business as a counsel, 
he was esteemed a sound lawyer ; and after above twenty 
years' experience at the bar he was recommended by his 
countryman Lord Campbell, when lord chancellor, to sup- 
ply the vacancy in the Queen's Bench, occasioned by the 
promotion of Sir William Erie. His appointment as judge 
took place in June 1859, and the customary knighthood a 
few months after. * 



HOLLAND, WJLLUM. 

B. E. 1837. 
See under the Beigns of George IV. and William IV. 

Sir William Bolland was the eldest son of a London 
merchant of the same names, and was born in 1772. He 
was sent for his education to Dr. Valpy's school at Keading, 
then noted for producing scholars of high literary attain- 
ment. While there he was a great favourite with his 
master, and wrote several prologues and epilogues for the 
annual dramatic performances for which the school was 
renowned. He thence proceeded to Trinity College, Cam- 
bridge, where he formed a life-long intimacy with John 
Copley, afterwards Lord Lyndhurst, and took his degrees 
with him in 1794 and 1796. In the latter and two follow- 
ing years he gained the Seatonian prize for his poems on 
" The Epiphany," '' Miracles," and " St Paul at Athens : " 
and subsequently evinced considerable poetic powers in 
several pieces of great elegance. But soon his devotions 
to Astra^a compelled him to desert the muses. He entered 
her (Inner) Temple, and placed himself under her priest 
George Holroyd, and, after some initiation into the mysteries, 
was permitted to join in the ministrations. 

To descend from these altitudes, he was called to the 
bar on April 24, 1801, having previously acted for some 

L s 



148 WILLIAM HOLLAND. Victoria. 

time as a special pleader. He joined the Home circuit, 
practising at the usual sessions attached to it, but princi- 
pally at the Old Bailey ; and in 1804 he became one of the 
four city pleaders. In all of these he commanded a large 
share of business, and acquired so good a reputation that in 
1815 he was selected to join Mr. Holroyd in a conunission to 
Jersey to inquire into the existence of certain " doleances " 
complained of by the inhabitants. In 1817 he was made 
recorder of Reading, the place of his pupilage; and in 1822, 
when from the respect he had obtained as senior city 
pleader he would certainly in ordinary times have been 
elected common seijeant of London, he was, from the poli- 
tical excitement arising from the trial of Queen Caroline, 
defeated by a small majority in favour of Mr. (afterwards 
Lord Chief Justice) Denman, who had acted as one of her 
majesty's advocates. 

After eight and twenty years' labour at the bar, he was 
called to the bench of the Exchequer on November 16, 
1829, to succeed Baron HuUock, a promotion which he 
owed more to the friendship of his brother collegian Lord 
Lyndhurst, than to his legal eminence. The nature of his 
business had not led him to that abstruse learning which is 
so necessary for a judge, except in regard to criminal law, 
with which he was intimately conversant. But gifted with 
good sense and discriminative judgment, he fulfilled his 
duties with great discretion. He occupied the judicial seat 
for nearly ten years, when disorders and infirmities obliged 
him to resign in January 1839 ; after which he lived little 
more than a year, his death taking place on May 14, 1840. 

He was one of the most popular men of his time. His 
eminently handsome and benevolent countenance made the 
first favourable impression, which his pleasantry, cordiality, 
and kind disposition more than confirmed. He had a mania 
for old English literature, and everything which was ancient 



1837— JOHN BERNARD BOSANQUET. 149 

and rare. The Roxburgh club originated at a dinner party 
given by him, and he furnished the first book circulated 
among his associates, being a reprint of Lord Surrey's 
version of the second book of the ^neid, the first specimen 
of blank verse in our language. He figures as Hortensius 
in Dr. Dibdin's Bibliomania; and his curious collection of 
books, pictures, and coins sold after his death for more than 
3000Z. 

He married in 1810 his cousin Elizabeth one of the 
daughters of John Bolland, Esq., of Clapham, and left 
several children. 

BOSANQUET, JOHN BERNARD. 

Just. C. P. 1837. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and William IV. 

The family of Bosanquet left France on the revocation of 
the Edict of Nantes in 1685, and settled in England, where 
several of its members flourished among the most eminent 
merchants of London. The judge's grandfather, Samuel 
Bosanquet, became lord of the manor of Low Hall in the 
county of Essex, and resided in Forest House in Waltham 
Forest: and his father, also Samuel, who added to the pro- 
perty the estate of Dingestow Court in Monmouthshire, was 
sheriff of the former county in 1770, and governor of the 
Bank of England in 1792. The judge was the youngest of 
three sons, the issue of his marriage with Eleanor daughter 
of Henry Lannoy Hunter, Esq., of Beechill in the county of 
Berks. He was bom at Forest House on May 2, 1773; 
and after passing some years at Eton College, in the hall of 
which his portrait now hangs, he completed his education at 
Christchurch, Oxford. 

The legal profession being chosen for him he entered 
Lincoln's Inn, and by that society was called to the bar in 
1800. He then joined the Home circuit and attended the 



150 JOHK BERNARD BOSANQUET. Victoria. 

Essex sessions^ of which his father was the chairman ; but 
three years before his call he had commenced his legal 
career as a reporter of decisions in the Common Pleas, 
Exchequer Chamber, and House of Lords, in conjunction 
with Mr, (afterwards Sir Christopher) Puller. Of these 
reports there were two series, one from 1797 to 1804, and 
the other from 1804 to 1807. After a steady progress for 
seven years more he was selected as counsel both for the 
East India Company and the Bank of England, owing these 
appointments no doubt in some measure to his family con- 
nections, his father having been governor of the one, and his 
cousin a director of the other. 

The extensive business in which he was thus engaged 
compelled him to quit the circuit ; and taking the coif in 
Michaelmas term 1814, he became from that time well 
known to the public in the numerous bank prosecutions, 
which the then frequent forgeries of one pound notes 
rendered necessary, and which he conducted with great 
discretion and effect for a period of thirteen years. In 1824 
he was offered the chief justiceship of Bengal, but declined 
it; and in 1827 he was honoured by being appointed 
king's Serjeant. Subsequently to this promotion he occa- 
sionally performed the duties of a judge at the assizes, when 
illness prevented the regular judge from attending ; and the 
judicial powers he exhibited when so presiding led soon after 
to his being selected to fill the vacancy on the bench at 
Westminster, occasioned by the retirement of Mr, Justice 
Burrough. 

He was appointed a judge of the Court of Common Pleas 
on February 1, 1830, and was thereupon knighted. The 
ability and impartiality with which he exercised his im- 
portant functions may be estimated by his being chosen one 
of the Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, in conjunc- 
tion with Sir Charles Pepys and Sir Lancelot Shadwell, 



1837— GEORGE W. W. BRAMWELL. 151 

when Lord Chancellor Lyndhurst resigned^ and Lord 
Melbourne came a second time into power. He was then 
made a member of the Privy Council. The commission 
lasted nine months^ from April 23, 1835, to January 16, 
1836 ; and after its termination Sir John sat in the Common 
Pleas for six years more; when the failure of his health 
compelled him to resign in Hilary term 1842. 

His appointment as head of the commission for the im- 
provement of the practice and proceedings of the Common 
Law Courts, and his selection as arbitrator between the 
Crown and the Duke of Athol, to fix the amount of the 
unsettled claims of the latter after he had resigned the 
sovereignty of the Isle of Man, are a sufficient proof of the 
high estimation in which he stood. 

In other respects his reputation was equally established. 
He published without his name a *^ Letter of a Layman," on 
the connection of the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apoca- 
lypse, embodying in a small compass a great amount of re- 
search. He was a very considerable linguist, of accurate 
and various learning, and particularly fond of scientific 
inquiries. In these pursuits he occupied the six years 
which he lived after his retirement. He died on September 
25, 1847, and was buried at Llantillio-Crossenny, Mon- 
mouthshire, in the vault of the family of his wife Mary 
Anne daughter of Bichard Lewis, Esq., of that place. She 
as well as their only son had preceded him to the same 
tomb. A monument to his memory is erected in the church 
of his own parish of Dingestow. 

BRAMWELL, GEORGE WILLIAM WILSHIRE. 

B. E. 1856. 

Sib George William Wilshiee Bramwell, one of the 
present Barons of the Exchequer, is the son of George 
Bramwell, a banker. He was bom in London, and was 



152 JAMES LEWIS KNIGHT- BRUCE. Victoria. 

called to the bar by the society of Lincoln's Inn in May 
1838. He travelled the Home circuit, and gained so good 
a reputation in his profession as to be appointed on the 
commission of inquiry into the process, practice, and system 
of pleadings in the superior courts. In 1851 he received a 
silk gown ; and on the resignation of Sir James Parke he 
was raised to the bench in January 1856, as a baron of the 
Exchequer, and was thereupon knighted. 
He is married to a daughter of Bruno Silva. 

BRUCE, JAMES LEWIS KNIGHT. 
Y. C. 1841. LosD Justice. 1851. 

Sir James Lewis Knight-Bruce was the first and is the 
present senior lord justice of the Court of Appeal in Chan- 
cery, established in the year 1851 ; — a court which is regarded 
with the utmost respect and confidence, from the full reliance 
placed by the legal world upon its decisions, and the high 
character for solid learning and strict impartiality of the 
judges who preside in it. 

The Lord Justice is descended from an old Shropshire 
family long settled near Ludlow. His father, John Knight, 
Esq., of Llanblethian in Glamorganshire, and Fairlinch in 
Devonshire, by his wife Margaret, the only married child of 
William Bruce, Esq., of the former place, a descendant from 
a junior branch of the ancient house of Bruce of Kennet, 
and granddaughter (by her mother) of Gabriel Lewis, Esq., 
of Lanishen in Glamorganshire, had a large family, of whom 
the Lord Justice was the youngest son. He was born at 
Barnstaple in 1791, and bore his father's name for the first 
forty-six years of his life ; but in 1837 he added by licence 
that of .his mother, upon the occasion of his eldest brother, 
John Bruce Bruce, Esq., assuming the surname of Pryce on 
succeeding to an estate. 



1837— JAMES LEWIS KNIGHT-BRUCE. 153 

Entering at Lincoln's Inn in 1812, he was called to the 
bar by that society in 1817. In the first instance he attended 
the Welsh circuit, where he is said to have had great suc- 
cess in handling the native juries. But in the Court of 
Chancery, to which he ultimately attached himself, his 
talents and industry were soon rewarded by so large a busi- 
ness that in 1829 he received a silk gown. From that time 
till he was raised to the bench he enjoyed the most extensive 
practice, through the labours of which he fought with un- 
flinching energy and imperturbable good humour. 

In 1831 he was elected member for Bishop's Castle, 
shortly before its disfranchisement by the reform act. In 
parliament he was a supporter of conservative principles. 
In 1834 the University of Oxford honoured him with the 
degree of D.C.L. 

When the legislature decided that two additional judges 
were necessary for the assistance of the lord chancellor, 
Mr. Knight-Bruce, with the approbation of the whole bar, 
was selected for the first place. He became vice-chancellor 
on October 28, 1841, and was thereupon knighted, and soon 
afterwards was called to the Privy Council. Indefatigable in 
the performance of the duties that devolved upon him,- no 
amount of labour seemed to distress or disconcert him. Be- 
fore the long vacation of 1850, by the illness of the two 
other vice-chancellors, the whole business of the three courts 
at the most pressing period of the year having been thrown 
on his hands, he despatched it with so much discrimination, 
ability, and good temper, that a public expression of respect- 
ful admiration was elicited from the whole bar, in an address 
from the attorney-general. 

It seemed naturally to follow, when the Court of Appeal 
in Chancery was organised in October 1851, that Sir James 
should at once be selected for the senior lord justice ; a posi- 
tion which he has now held for above twelve years. This 



154 JOHN BARNARD BYLES. Victohia. 

is not the place^ and indeed it would be presumptuous to 
attempt to describe the excellence of his judgments^ or to 
characterise them more particularly. 

He married Eliza^ the only daughter of Thomas Newte^ 
Esq.9 of Duvale in Devonshire, by whom he has several 
children, 

BYLES, JOHN BARNARD. 

Just. C. P. 1858. 

Sir John Barnard Byles is one of the present judges of 
the Common Pleas. He was bom at Stowmarketin Suffolk 
in 1801 ; and is the eldest son of John Byles, Esq., of that 
place, by the only daughter of William Barnard, Esq., of 
Holts in Essex. 

Called to the bar by the Inner Temple in November 
1831, he joined the Norfolk circuit and attended the sessions 
attached to it. In 1840 he was appointed recorder of 
Buckingham, and in 1843 received the degree of the coif, to 
which was added a patent of precedence in all the courts in 
1846, the year in which the act was passed opening the court 
of Common Pleas to all barristers. In 1857 he was pro- 
moted to the dignity of queen's serjeant. During the whole 
period of his career as an advocate his sagacity and sound 
judgment secured for him a considerable and ultimately a 
leading business. 

His professional reputation must have been universally 
acknowledged, to have induced a lord chancellor, so much 
opposed to him in politics as was Lord Cranworth, to select 
him for a judge's place. Mr. Serjeant Byles was not only a 
tory, or rather a conservative, in his opinions, but had advo- 
cated the principles of that section of his party which 
supported protection in an able pamphlet, called *^ Sophisms 
of Free Trade." Notwithstanding this apparent impediment 
to his advance. Lord Cranworth, deeming that a good judge 



1837— JOHN CAMPBELL. 155 

was better than a political partisan^ made choice of one who 
in the estimation of the legal world held the highest place. 
Mr. Byles was therefore appointed in June 1858 to fill the 
vacancy made by Sir Cresswell Cresswell as a judge of the 
Common Pleas. 

He has been twice married. His first wife, a daughter of 
J. Foster, Esq., of Biggleswade, he lost very early; his 
second is a daughter of J. Weld, Esq., of Royston. 

Besides the above-mentioned pamphlet he published a work 
" On the Usury Laws," and some others. 

CAMPBELL, JOHN, Lord Campbell. 

Ch. Q. B. 1850. Lord Chano. 1859. 

The life of a lawyer who began his public career as a writer 
in a newspaper, and ended it as lord chancellor of Great 
Britain, who during the interval filled the grades of barrister, 
solicitor-, and attorney-general, chancellor of Ireland, cabinet 
minister, and chief justice of the Queen's Bench; who 
figures as a senator, a legislator, a biographer, and a critic ; 
would require a more extended space for the full description 
of his merits and pretensions than can be afforded in a work 
like the present. The abridgment that is thus rendered 
necessary in the account to be given of Lord Campbell is 
less to be regretted, as he himself in his Lives of the 
Chancellors (VIL 693) expresses "deep regret that they 
did not. employ their leisure in writing memoirs of them- 
selves and their times," and therefore it is to be hoped that, 
avoiding the implied censure, the world will in due time be 
favoured with his own relation of his history, supplying the 
deficiency which he complains of in others. In the expecta- 
tion of such an autobiography, no more will be attempted 
here than to trace his lordship's career through its more 
prominent phases, taking advantage of the various episodes 



156 JOHN CAMPBELL, ViCTOBlA. 

relating to himself, which are profusely interspersed through 
all the seven volumes of his Lives of the Chancellors, and 
his three volumes of the Lives of the Chief Justices. 

John Campbell was bom on September 5, 1781, at 
Springfield near Cupar in Fifeshire, North Britain. He 
was the younger of two sons of Dr. George Campbell, who 
at his death in 1824 had been the minister of Cupar for 
fifty-four years. His mother was Magdalene, daughter of 
John HaUburton, Esq., of Fodderance. Sent at the early 
age of ten to the University of St. Andrew's, with the 
object of being prepared for the ministry, he spent eight 
years there in the studies necessary for that sacred avocation. 
At the end of that period, either conscious of his own 
unaptness for the profession, or ambitious of greater honours 
than it promised, he determined to relinquish his clerical 
prospects, and to aim at legal distinction, prompted no 
doubt by the success of his countrymen. Lord Mansfield, 
Lord Loughborough, Sir William Grant, Sir Archibald 
Macdonald, and others of less name. Having taken the 
degree of A.M. he left St. Andrew's accordingly ; and he 
tells us that he performed his journey to London *^ in three 
nights and two days, Mr. Palmer's mail coaches being then 
established;" ' and in November 1800 he entered the society 
of Lincoln's Inn. 

The new student notes that his first appearance in the 
court of King's Bench was on June 26 of that year, when 
James Hadfield was tried for shooting at George III. in 
Drury Lane Theatre, describing his disappointment at its 
confined dimensions, and remarking on the appearance of the 
judicial and legal personages present.^ For instruction in 
the rudiments of the law he was fortunate enough to place 
himself under the guidance of Mr. Tidd. With that eminent 

* Chancellors, vi. 50. The references to this work, and to the Lives of the 
Chief Justices, all apply to the first edition of each. ' Ch. Just. iii. 57. 



1837— JOHN CAMPBELL. 157 

special pleader he stayed three years, and to the tuition he 
received during that time he chiefly ascribed his success at 
the bar. He gratefully records the generosity of his in- 
structor, who, he relates, on finding that it would not be 
convenient to him to pay a second fee of one hundred 
guineas, not only refused to take it, but insisted on retiu'ning 
him the first. ^ Before this, finding that the small allowance 
which his father could make him was inadequate for his 
support in the metropolis, he was necessitated to find some 
remunerative employment ; and he acknowledges the assist- 
ance he derived from Kterary labour.^ 

He was engaged for many years as a reporter to the 
Morning Chronicle, then under the conduct of Mr. Perry, a 
countryman of his ; an occupation profitable to him, not 
only in a pecuniary, but also in a professional way, as leading 
to a closer observation of the practice and decisions of the 
courts, and a deeper insight into the politics of the hour, 
than an ordinary student can generally attain. To this he 
added occasionally a dramatic criticism, in which after some 
time he became an adept, though from the strictness of his 
presbyterian education and consequent inexperience, this 
must at first have been a diflScult task, and probably pro- 
duced some strictures which in after years he would hesitate 
to indorse. The Morning Chronicle was the organ of the 
whigs, to which party young Campbell attached himself at 
the outset of his career, and it is greatly to his credit that 
during the whole of his life, whether it was in opposition or 
in power, he never deserted it. His occupation and his 
politics introduced him into various society ; and among his 
relaxations were the enjoyments of the Cider Cellar in 
Maiden Lane, Covent Garden. There he had the advantage of 
associating with many men of celebrity, among whom was the 
learned and eccentric Professor Person, who surprised him by 

» Chanc. V. 484. « Ch. Just. iii. 600. 



158 JOHN CAMPBELL. Victobia. 

reciting the whole of Anstey's Pleader's Guide from memory.^ 
Among his " most intimate friends " he records Dick Danby, 
the Temple hair dresser, so weU known and respected by 
every barrister of the Inn, and pays a good humoured tribute 
to his memory.* During the period of his novitiate, when 
Bonaparte threatened to invade the kingdom, he was not 
backward in answering the call upon the country to defend 
it. He joined the " Bloomsbury and Inns of Court Asso- 
ciation," * a corps chiefly composed of members of the legal 
profession, and he looked back in after years with so much 
pride to his position in the ranks, that he left the musket he 
bore as an heir-loom to his descendants. 

Mr. Campbell was present at the trial of Governor Wall 
in 1 802, for a murder committed twenty years before when 
governor of Goree, and ventures to denounce his conviction 
by the jury, and his subsequent execution.* Of Lord 
Kenyon, who was then chief justice, he relates that at the 
Nisi Prius sittings at Guildhall, the chief used to hand the 
record to the students who sat in a box close to him, and 
point out to them the important issues to be tried.* During 
the latter part of Mr. Campbell's pupilage the chief justice 
was Lord Ellenborough, with whose ^* very dignified, impres- 
sive, and awe-inspiring deportment," especially at the trial of 
Col. Despard in 1803 for high treason, he was much struck, 
and whose " rough treatment " of him in his future career 
he regrettingly remembers.^ 

He was called to the bar in Michaelmas term 1806, and 
turned the experience he had acquired in reporting to good 
account, by publishing in 1808 two volumes of " Reports of 
Cases Argued and Tried at Nisi Prius, in the courts of 

' Ch. Just. i. 120, iii. 271. The author's mother was witness to a more 
extraordinary instance of the learned Professor's tenacity of memory, by his 
reciting to her the whole of the renowned history of ** Goody Two Shoes." 

• Ibid. iii. 249. • Ibid. IL 604. * Ibid. iii. 149. * Ibid. ii. 329. 

• Ibid. iii. 94, 177. 



1837— JOHN CAMPBELL. 159 

Bang's Bench and Common Pleas, in the Home circuit, 
from Michaeknas term 1807 to the sittings before Easter 
1808 ;" which he afterwards continued in two additional 
volumes extending to the year 1816. This publication 
greatly aided his progress at ihe bar. The decisions of Lord 
Ellenborough were admirably reported; and Campbell, 
though flattered by Sir James Mansfield's astonishment at 
finding how uniformly those pronounced by the chief justice, 
as reported, were right, used to accoimt for the fact by 
saying that he had a drawer marked " Bad Law," into which 
he threw all the cases which seemed to him improperly ruled. 
These rejected cases were all burnt in the great fire in the 
Temple when he was attorney-general.^ Dr. Watt mentions 
also another publication under Mr. Campbell's name in 1808, 
** A Letter to a Member of Parliament on the Articles of a 
Charge against Marquis Wellesley, which have been laid 
before the House of Commons ;" " probably an ephemeral 
pamphlet which died with the day. It would seem from the 
title of his reports that he at first attended the Home circuit, 
though afterwards, about 1810, he joined the Oxford circuit. 
He relates that in the grand court of that circuit he held the 
office of crier, " holding the poker instead of a white wand." * 
On that circuit as well as in Westminster Hall his success 
was so finreat, that for three years before he obtained a silk 
gown hf was the leader of il« 

In 1821 he had married Mary Elizabeth, the eldest daughter 
of Mr. Scarlett, then one of the most eminent advocates at 
the bar, who afterwards became lord chief baron of the Ex- 
chequer, and was created Lord Abinger. To the influence 
of his father-in-law, who was appointed attorney-general in 
1827, he probably owed his promotion to the post of king's 
counsel in the same year. Lord Lyndhurst being chancellor. 

> Chanc. iv. 458. « Watt's Biblioth. Britan. ad nom. 

• Ch. Just. iu. 272, 278. * Ibid. iii. 275. 



160 JOHN CAMPBELL. Victoria. 

He refers with pride to the compliment then paid to Lord 
Tenterden by the attendance of all the members of the bar 
in procession to the House of Lords, on his taking his seat 
as a peer of the realm : but most unaccountably in the 
marginal note to this elevation, he designates it as " his 
degradation to the peerage." ^ Does his lordship mean 
to intimate that his own elevation to the peerage, when he 
was made lord chancellor of Ireland, was a degradation ? 

In the next year he was named the chairman of a commis- 
sion on the Registration of Deeds, and in 1830 he was placed 
at the head of the Real Property Commission.* In that 
year he began his senatorial career as member for Stafford, 
entering into parliament at the time his Whig friends had 
attained power. He soon showed himself active and useful 
in introducing and defending several important measures, 
among which were the Bill for the Registration of Deeds, 
and the Anatomy BilL A friend to parliamentary reform, 
he glories in having materially furthered the measure, attri- 
buting, not unnaturally, the one vote, by which the second 
reading of Lord John Russell's first bill was carried, to his 
leaving his circuit " at a considerable professional sacrifice," 
and coming up to London to be present at the division. 
His speech on the second bill he afterwards published.* 

On November 26, 1832, he was rewarded with the 
solicitor-generalship, and consequent knighthood, on Lord 
Denman becoming chief justice of the King's Bench and Sir 
William Home succeeding as attorney-general. In the new 
parliament then called he changed his constituents for those 
of Dudley. For this borough he only retained his seat till 
1834, when, on his being made attorney-general, the fickle 
town would not re-elect him. The annoyance that he felt 
on his defeat is visible in a note introduced into his life of 
Lord Guilford. ^^ I can testify, from having witnessed it, 

» Ch. Just. iii. 313, 315. « ^^i^ m 324. « Speeches, 49. 



1837— JOHN CAMPBELL. 161 

that the scene of the greatest exultation and joy In this 
world is the procession of the ^ third man ' entering a borough 
during a canvass for the election of members of Parliament. 
Those who do not mean to support him, and know he has no 
chance of success^ equally rejoice — in the consciousness of 
their own increased importance — and from his worship the 
mayor down to the beggar In the street, all expect to derive 
some gratification from the coming contest." ^ For nearly a 
whole session he remained without a seat; but in the follow- 
ing June he succeeded with a more distinguished constitu- 
ency, being elected member for Edinburgh in the place of 
Francis Jeffrey, made a lord of session. This city he con- 
tinued to represent while he remained a commoner. His 
tenure of oflSice was interrupted after little more than nine 
months by his party being turned out of the ministry in 
December 1834, but only to be restored with more con- 
firmed power in April 1835, when Sir John was reinstated 
in his place. 

Before his first period of office as attorney-general expired, 
Sir John Leach, the master of the Rolls, died. Though 
according to the usual practice he might have claimed the 
vacant place, he allowed himself to be passed over in favour 
of the solicitor-general. Sir Charles Christopher Pepys, who 
was appointed. On his resuming the office of attorney- 
general the Great Seal was put into commission, of which the 
new master of the Rolls was the head ; and after so remain- 
ing about nine months, Sir Charles was constituted lord 
chancellor. Thus for a second time the office of master of 
the Rolls was vacant, and for a second time Sir John 
Campbell was passed over. Lord Langdale receiving the 
appointment. The avowed reason for thus overlooking his 
claims was that he was wholly inexperienced as an equity 
lawyer ; but the real ground was supposed to be that he was 

> Chanc. iii. 447, 448. 
VOI-. IX. M 



162 JOHN CAMPBELL. Victoria. 

SO active and serviceable to the ministry in the House of 
Commons that he could not be spared without danger to its 
existence. In recognition of his political services, and in 
compensation for his loss, a peerage was at the same time 
given to his wife, with the title of Baroness Stratheden. 

The Whig party retained their ascendency for the next 
four years, and no vacancy occurred on the bench which Sir 
John Campbell was desirous to fiU. During the whole period 
he devoted himself to the improvement of the laws, and 
several statutes owe their existence to his introduction. In 
his parliamentary career, both at this time and after his ac- 
cession to the peerage, he succeeded in passing many im- 
portant and salutary measures of legal reform, by which the 
title to property was made more simple and secure, and the 
laws of imprisonment and of libel were placed on a more 
satisfactory basis. On the ministry beginning to totter in 
1841, they were so determined before their exclusion to 
reward their attorney-general for his political and professional 
exertions, that they ventured on the bold and questionable 
step of removing their ancient colleague. Lord Plunkett, 
from the chancellorship of Ireland, for the purpose of raising 
Sir John to that dignity, and decking him with a peerage. 
With reluctance Lord Plunkett submitted ; and Sir John, 
on Jime 22, 1841, became Lord Campbell of St. Andrew's 
and Lord Chancellor of Ireland. After sitting only one or 
two days in the Irish Court he made a speech to the bar, in 
which he plainly intimates his expectation of soon being 
" reduced to a private station." * The ministry succumbed 
in August, and Lord Campbell, retiring with them, finished 
his short tenure of oflSce, entitled to a pension of 4000/., 
which he had the grace to decline accepting. 

During the nine years that followed his retirement he 
applied himself to his senatorial duties, taking a leading part 

* Speeches, 518. 



1837— JOHN CAMPBELL. 163 

iu the Lords' debates^ and assisting greatly in the appellant 
jurisdiction of the House. But his active habits required 
further occupation ; and in 1842 he found it by publishing 
his ** Speeches at the Bar and in the House of Commons," 
the former commencing with his defence of Lord Melbourne, 
then the prime minister, in the action for damages brought 
against him by Mr. Norton, by which he saved the adminis- 
tration ; and the latter comprehending the various subjects 
of legal and ecclesiastical reform which he had advocated in 
the House. Though exhibiting great argumentative in- 
genuity, the publication did not raise his character for 
eloquence. But his ambition was not satisfied with this 
slight offering; aiming at literary fame, he next chose a 
subject, from the execution of which he hoped to obtain it. 
This was " The Lives of the Lord Chancellors," the first 
three volumes of which he published at the close of 1845, 
continuing them in 1846 and 1847, till he had filled seven 
volumes, concluding with the Life of Lord Eldon. 

Previous to the publication of these volumes he tells us 
that he deemed it necessary to move the repeal of a standing 
order of the House of Lords passed in 1721, and levelled 
against Edmund CurU, declaring it to be " a breach of 
privilege to publish the life of any deceased peer or lord 
of parliament without the permission of his heir or execu- 
tors." ^ Although I have been compelled to take notice, in 
the progress of my investigations, of some errors in the 
work, it would not, for palpable reasons, be becoming in me 
to express any general opinion on its merits. It undoubtedly 
acquired an immediate popularity, and though it was con- 
demned by some critics for its looseness and occasional in- 
correctness, it should be remembered that the mere writing 
of seven volumes, each consisting of between six and seven 
hundred closely-printed pages, in the course of little more 

* Cbanc. iy. 136. 
V 2 



164 JOHN CAMPBELL. VICTORIA. 

than two years, was of itself an extraordinary effort of labour, 
and that it would be unreasonable to expect any strict in- 
vestigation of records or authorities, or more than a compila- 
tion from previous writers. In 1849 he published two 
volumes of " The Lives of the Chief Justices," to which, in 
1857, he added a third gossiping volume, including those of 
Lords Kenyon, EUenborough, and Tenterden, in which a 
tendency to disparage his noble predecessors is too apparent. 
The only other literary production which he printed was 
" Shakespeare's Legal Acquirements," being an attempt to 
prove that the great dramatist spent his youth in an attorney's 
office. This was a mere enlargement of the idea that had 
been previously suggested by Malone, Chalmers, W. S. 
Landor, J. P. Collier, and, so lately as in 1838, by Charles 
Armitage Brown ; and from the trifling nature of some of 
the passages he produced from the various plays, tending to 
confirm this hypothesis, we are left in doubt whether his 
lordship, though professing to be grave, is not quizzing the 
theorists and treating the subject ironically. 

To return to Lord Campbell's political and professional 
life. When his party came again into power in 1846, Lord 
John Kussell, the prime minister, admitted him into the 
cabinet, and gave him the appointment of chancellor of the 
Duchy of Lancaster. This office he filled till March 6, 
1850, when. Lord Denman having retired from ill health and 
advanced age. Lord Campbell was raised to the chief justice- 
ship of the Queen's Bench, although only two years younger 
than his predecessor. On that occasion he quitted Lincoln's 
Inn in order to take upon himself the degree of a serjeant, 
which is still considered a necessary grade, from which all 
who become judges are to be selected. According to ancient 
custom he was rung out of Lincoln's Inn, and he was 
addressed, on taking leave of his society, by his veteran col- 
league Lord Brougham, in a speech which will be remembered 



1837— JOHN CAMPBELL. 165 

as a most eloquent and just eulogy on his predecessor. Lord 
Denman. On assuming his office he of course relinquished 
his seat in the cabinet council, as he had expressed his 
strong disapproval of the union of the two positions by Lord 
Mansfield in 1757, and Lord EUenborough in 1806.^ 

Lord Campbell was specially fitted for the office to which 
he was thus appointed. During the nine years that he filled 
it, he is acknowledged to have performed its important duties 
in a most exemplary manner, preserving the dignity of the 
place, and administering the law with apparent ease and 
strict impartiality. When Lord Palmerston assumed the 
premiership for a second time in 1859, he offered Lord 
Campbell the chancellorship ; and it surprised the world 
that he should be tempted to leave a court where he was 
so much at home, for one in the practice of which he could 
not be expected to be so conversant, especially when its 
tenure was so uncertain. But ambition decided, and he 
received the Great Seal on June 18. 

He presided over the court of Chancery for two years, 
and the practisers in it were astonished at the readiness with 
which he mastered the forms of the court, and the discrimi- 
nation he showed in the judgments he pronounced. He 
applied himself to his new duties as if he had been all his 
life accustomed to them, and the bar had no reason to com- 
plain of hesitation or doubt in his decisions. In the midst 
of his duties, in the full tide of his triumph, he was sud- 
denly cut off. On Saturday, June 23, 1861, he had attended 
a cabinet council, and after having entertained a party of 
friends at his house at Knightsbridge, had retired to his 
chamber in his accustomed health and spirits, and applied 
himself to preparing a judgment which he had promised on 
Monday. On Sunday morning he was found dead in his 

> Ch. Just. ii. 451, iii. 185. 



166 JOHN CAMPBELL. Victoria. 

chair with the blood oozing from his mouth, caused by the 
bursting of one of the great arteries rear his heart. 

Thus awfully terminated the life of one who, during its 
whole continuance, never relaxed from his labours, who never 
was satisfied unless he was doing something, and was indefati- 
gable in all his pursuits. Commencing as a poor and depen- 
dent man, he worked his way by industry and perseverance, 
not only to wealth but to the highest honours of his profes- 
sion. In the temporary cessation of his legal Ufe, his love 
of employment led him to aspire to the acquisition of a 
literary name. It is not, however, probable that his fame 
as a lawyer, a legislator, or a judge, will be superseded by 
his repute as an author. The transient popularity of his 
works has already in a great measure subsided, for though 
they must ever be regarded as an extraordinary effort of 
laborious industry, and as composed in a pleasant and easy, 
though somewhat egotistic, style, they are not looked upon 
as authority by those who are best versed in the history of 
the various times of which they treat. It has been con- 
sidered a material detraction from the merits of his works, 
that from the beginning to the end of them he takes every 
opportunity of referring to the incidents of his own life, and 
the advice and opinions he gave in his professional capacity. 
Of this practice I have no reason to complain, as it will have 
been seen that I have in various instances availed myself in 
the present sketch of the volunteer information. 

In the year before his own death he lost his wife Lady 
Stratheden, to whose title their eldest son William Fre- 
derick succeeded, thus taking a place in the peerage which, 
but for his father's position as chancellor, would have given 
him precedence in the House of Lords. This anomaly would 
no doubt have been prevented, had the chancellor lived, by 
raising him to a viscounty or an earldom ; but by his death 
his son now enjoys both the titles of Stratheden and Camp- 



1837— ALEXANDER J. E. COCKBURN. 167 

bell, which must in future be united in the same person. 
The chancellor left two other sons and four daughters. 

CHANNELL, WILLIAM FRY. 

R E. 1857. 

Sir William Fry Channell has been one of the barons 
of the Exchequer since 1857. He is the son of Pike 
ChanneU, Esq., of Peckham in Surrey. On his caU to the 
bar by the society of the Inner Temple in May 1827, he 
attained considerable business on the Home circuit, and his 
aid as a junior coimsel was greatly sought both in the country 
and in London. He was one of the five gentlemen, who in 
1840, on the warrant for opening the court of Common 
Fleas to all barristers being declared null and void, were the 
first who were called to the degree of serjeant-at-law with 
all its former privileges. On February 12, 1857, he was 
chosen to succeed Sir Edward Alderson as a baron of the 
Exchequer, and was a few months after knighted. 

He married in 1834 a daughter of Richard Moseley, Esq., 
of Champion HUl, Camberwell. 

CHELMSFORD, LORD. See F. Thesiger, 
COCKBURN, ALEXANDER JAMES EDMUND. 

Ch. C. p. 1856. Ch. Q. B. 1859. 

The present lord chief justice of the court of Queen's Bench 
is Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockbum of Langton, 
Berwickshire, tenth baronet of Nova Scotia, created in 1627. 
He is the son of Alexander Cockbum, Esq., formerly envoy 
extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Columbia, by 
the daughter of the Viscomte de Vignier of St. Domingo ; 
and the grandson of Sir James Cockbum the seventh 
baronet ; whose next brothers. Admiral Sir George, and the 



168 ALEXANDER J. E. COCKBURN. Victoria. 

Very Rev. Sir William, dean of York, the eighth and ninth 
baronets, died without male issue. 

Sir Alexander became a member of Trinity Hall, Cam- 
bridge, in 1822, and in his second year gained prizes for the 
best exercises in English and Latin, and afterwards for the 
English essay. He graduated as B.C.L. in 1829, and was 
elected fellow of his college. He had previously in No- 
vember 1825 been admitted to the Middle Temple, by which 
society he was called to the bar on February 6, 1829. 
Joining the Western circuit and attending the Devonshire 
sessions he quickly established for himself a considerable 
business. Soon after the reform bill was passed, he and Mr. 
Rowe commenced the publication of reports of decisions 
which arose out of that measure, and the volume in which 
they were collected is of great and substantial merit. As 
both a qualification for, and a consequence of, this work, 
Mr. Cockbum was engaged in several contests before election 
committees; in which he showed so much ability that in 
1834 he was placed on the Municipal Corporation commis- 
sion, the corporations on the North Midland circuit being 
assigned to him and two other commissioners. His parlia- 
mentary employments, though they increased largely, did 
not abstract his attention from the more regular business of 
the courts, and both became of such magnitude that he felt 
warranted in 1841 in obtaining the precedence of a silk 
gown. " Of his powers of advocacy," one of his most dis- 
tinguished contemporaries and professional competitors says, 
** it is impossible to speak too highly. He was not perhaps 
so well fitted for the daily work of the profession, because he 
was always indisposed to bend his mind to it. But when any 
great occasion called for extraordinary exertion, he excelled 
all the eloquent advocates who were amongst my contem- 
poraries. Although he soared to a high pitch he never lost 
himself in the clouds, and he dealt with the facts of the case 



1837— ALEXANDER J. E. COCKBURN. 169 

in a practical and at the same time in a masterly manner." 
The same discriminating critic used to say to him in allusion 
to his powers, " You fly better than you walk." 

In the year of his obtaining rank he ably defended his 
uncle, and assisted in overturning the attempt to deprive 
him of the deanery of York. Among other cases in which 
he distinguished himself as a leader was his eloquent and 
impressive defence in 1843 of M'Naughton, who had shot 
Mr. Drimimond, in which he satisfied the jury that his 
client was not a responsible being. In the meantime he had 
been appointed recorder of Southampton, and, in 1847, was 
elected member for that borough, which he continued to 
represent till he was elevated to the bench. His speeches in 
Parliament were less professional than those for which the 
members of the bar are generally noted, and he was of great 
assistance in supporting the liberal party with whom he 
acted. 

He soon had a proof of the estimation in which the 
ministry regarded him by their selecting him in July 1850 
to succeed Sir John Romilly in the office of solicitor-general, 
whereupon he was knighted ; and in the following March he 
took the same gentleman's place of attorney-general, on his 
being made master of the Rolls. ^ He held this office till 
November 1856, with the exception of ten months between 
February 27 and December 28, 1852, during which the Earl 
of Derby conducted the government. His next promotion 
was that of recorder of Bristol in 1854 ; and on the death of 
Sir John Jervis, Sir Alexander was immediately constituted 
chief justice of the Common Pleas on November 21, 1856. 
He presided in that court for nearly three years, during 
which his uncle the dean of York dying, he succeeded to the 
baronetcy in 1858. On the elevation of Lord Campbell to 

' Ad able Memoir of Sir Alexander, till he reached the office of attorney- 
general, appeared in the Law Magazine for November 1851, p. 193. 



170 ALEXANDER J. E. COCKBURN. VlCTOBlA. 

the office of lord chancellor. Sir Alexander was raised to his 
present position of lord chief justice of the Queen's Bench 
on June 24, 1859. 

The restriction under which I placed myself of not giving 
any opinion of my own on the judicial merits of the existing 
members of the bench, ought not to prevent me from recording 
the estimation in which they are regarded by their eminent 
contemporaries. It is but justice therefore to quote a portion 
of the eloquent eulogy of Mr. Serjeant (now Mr. Justice) 
Shee, in proposing the health of the Chief Justice, when 
presiding as chairman of the anniversary festival of the 
United Law Clerks' Society in 1863. After a few words 
introducing his name he proceeded thus, '* He is the successor 
in, if not the highest, the second post in the law of England — 
of men than whom, as great magistrates, in no country of 
the world will men be found their equals, or at least their 
superiors .... To say of him that he surpasses in the great 
and highest quality of a chief justice — the high legal 
attainments of some of his predecessors — would be flattery, 
of which I will not be guilty ; but this I will venture to say, 
that he possesses qualities which have endeared him to us 

aU, in which none of them have surpassed him We 

like him because we know that his distinction was achieved 
by no back-stairs influence ; by no political intrigue, by no 
political subservience. We like him because we know that 
he did not arrive at the high position which he now occupies 
without having first obtained, solely by his own endowments 
and superior talents, the highest position at the bar. . . . We 
like him because we know that not merely the honour of the 
profession, but the honour and character of every man who 
comes before him, are safe in his hands. We like and 
admire him because we observe every day that the command 
which he possesses of all the treasures aiid all the beau- 
ties of our noble language enables him, whenever there is 



1837— JOHN TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 171 

occasion for it, to refute whatever fallacies and sophistries are 
put forward before him at the bar, and to vindicate at the 
close of every cause the innocence that belongs to those that 
are tried. But most of all we like him, we respect him, we 
love him, for this, because, whenever he has occasion to re- 
prove or to rebuke — and no man in his position can be without 
having some occasion to reprove and to rebuke — he takes 
care always to temper authority with gentleness, and to 
rebuke without giving pain." ^ 

COLERIDGE, JOHN TAYLOR. 

Just. Q. B. 1837. 

See under the Reign of William lY. 

The name of Coleridge never occurs without associations of 
intellectual eminence — whether as poet, philosopher, bio- 
grapher, scholar, ecclesiastic, or jurist. In whatever branch 
of literature the members of the family have been engaged 
they have become distinguished ; and many of them will be 
inscribed on the rolls of fame in characters which time will 
be long in obliterating. In the foremost rank of these, as a 
scholar and a lawyer, must be placed the judge whose career 
is now to be recorded. 

John Taylor Coleridge was born at Tiverton on July 9, 
1790. His grandfather was vicar of the parish of Ottery 
St. Mary in Devonshire, and master of the grammar school 
there. His father was Captain James Coleridge, who re- 
tired from the army soon after his marriage with Frances 

' Annual Report of the •* United Law Clerks* Society," 1863. I am glad to 
have the opportunity of mentioning this very excellent society, founded upon 
the purest principles and extending the most essential aid in the hours of 
sickness and in the event of death to that most useful hody, the law clerks. 
It is with the greatest pride I look upon the valuable snuff box they presented 
me in 1836 after having presided at their first public anniversary festival; and 
it is with the greatest pleasure I notice their continued prosperity, and the high 
patronage by which their efforts are encouraged. 



172 JOHN TAYLOR COLERIDGE. YictortA. 

Dake Taylor, the daughter of one of the co-helresses of the 
family of Duke of Otterton and Power Hayes, one of the 
most ancient in the county of Devon. Ere young Coleridge 
was SIX years old his father removed to Ottery St. Mary, in 
order to place his children under the instruction of his younger 
brother, the Rev. George Coleridge, who, some years after 
his father's death, had been appointed master of the school. 
Here the boy remained till 1803, and to the excellent train- 
ing he received under his uncle, a most conscientious teacher, 
of unwearied industry, accurate learning, and excellent taste, 
he attributes in a great degree whatever success or reputa- 
tion he attained in his future life. 

In June 1803, he went to Eton, but though on the 
foundation, was superannuated for the election to King's 
College, Cambridge, in consequence of the absurd and in- 
consistent system then adopted, but long since happily 
altered. Neither he, however, nor the present bishop of 
Winchester (Dr. Sumner), nor the dean of St. Paul's (Dr. 
Milman), who were his class-fellows and suffered a similar 
fate, ever afterwards regretted their disappointment. Besides 
these, he formed at Eton a life-long friendship with the pre- 
sent bishop of Lichfield (Dr. Lonsdale), and his future 
brother-in-law and colleague on the bench, the late Sir 
John Patteson. Under the headship of Dr. Goodall, and 
as the pupil of the Rev. Charles Yonge, whose unremitting 
attention and kindness he ever most heartily acknowledged, 
the young student acquired a considerable Eton reputation. 
Though he testified on every occasion in after life his warm 
attachment to the school and his anxiety to promote its 
interest, he was not blind to the defects of the system on 
which it was conducted. These defects he did not scruple 
at a future period tenderly but boldly to point out, and the 
exposure naturally led to a controversy, the result of which 
will probably be the production of many amendments. 



1837— JOHN TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 173 

In April 1809, he was elected to a scholarship at Corpus 
Christi College, Oxford, where he contracted intimacies with 
Mr. Keble, the author of the " Christian Year," and with 
Dr. Arnold, the eminent master of Rugby. Mr. Coleridge's 
career at the university was most triumphant. In 1810 he 
won the chancellor's Latin verse prize, the subject being 
" Pyramides JEgyptiacse." In 1812 he was placed alone in 
the first class for classics; and in the same year he was 
elected fellow of Exeter College and Vinerian Law scholar. 
In 1813 he won the chancellor's prizes for prose composition, 
both in English and Latin, the former having for its subject 
"Etymology," and the latter "The moral eflPects of the 
Censor's oflBce in Rome." Since the foundation of these 
prizes, it has only happened three times that they both have 
been gained by one man in the same year, the three con- 
querors being Mr. Coleridge, Mr. Keble, and Dr. Milman ; 
and on each occasion the chancellor (Lord Grenville) testified 
his pleasure and approbation by adding to the prizes the gift 
of a costly and valuable classic. In 1852 the university 
presented to him the honorary degree of D.C.L. 

In the same year in which he was elected Vinerian Law 
scholar he entered the Middle Temple ; and after practising 
for a short time as a certificated special pleader, he was 
called to the bar on June 26, 1819, having in the preceding 
year married Mary daughter of the Rev. Dr. Buchanan, 
rector of Woodmanstone in Surrey. For more than fifteen 
years he was a regular attendant on the Western circuit, 
and, though he had for his competitors such eminent men as 
Serjeant Wilde (afterwards Lord Truro), Sir William 
Follett, Chief Justice Erie, Mr. Justice Erskine, and Mr. 
Justice Crowder, he obtained considerable success. As he 
expresses himself in one of his future lectures, " The law 
was not a hard mistress to him, and did not allow him long 
to languish without business^ nor suffer him to be without 



174 JOHN TATLOB COLERIDGE. YiciOBlA* 

hope." During this period he had been appointed, in 1827, 
a conunissioner of Bankmptcj ; and, in 1832, the corporation 
of Exeter elected him to the then important post of their 
recorder; the offer of a similar honour firom both the 
boroughs of Southmolton and Barnstaple having been de- 
clined by him. In February 1832, he was raised to the 
dignity of the coif, and when, in April 1834, the attempt 
was made, under the warrant of ]Kng William lY., to open 
the court of Conunon Pleas to all barristers, he, with the 
other serjeants-at-law, was supposed to be compensated by 
receiving a patent of precedence giving him rank after the 
existing king'8 counsel 

Engaged as he was in his legal occupations, Mr. Coleridge 
never deserted his literary pursuits. He contributed occa- 
sionally to the '^ Quarterly Review," and on the retirement 
of its editor, William Gifford, he for one year (1824) imder- 
took the post, but at the end of it, finding that its labours 
interfered too much with his professional practice, he re- 
signed it into the able management of the late Mr. Lockhart. 
To professional literature he supplied an excellent edition of 
Blackstone's Commentaries in 1825. 

Mr. Coleridge was soon called upon to take the position 
which all allowed he was the most competent to fill. The 
sudden death of Mr. Justice Taunton having made a vacancy 
in the court of King's Bench, Lord Lyndhurst (then in his 
second chancellorship) recommended his appointment, which 
took place on January 27, 1835 ; the honour of knighthood 
being conferred upon him shortly after. For more than 
three-and-twenty years he administered justice on that bench 
and on the different circuits in a manner which will be best 
described in the language of the bar, who had been wit- 
nesses of the judge's career, as expressed by their spokes- 
man, the attorney-general (Sir Fitzroy Kelly), on June 28, 
1858, the day of his retirement. 



1837— JOHN TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 175 

" Three and twenty years have now elapsed since your 
lordship was raised by the well- deserved favour of the 
crown to a seat on that bench. Throughout that eventful 
period your public life has been distinguished by that dignity 
and sustained exercise of high judicial conduct, which has 
rendered so many of your predecessors illustrious, and has 
won for the administration of the law in this court the 
respect and confidence of the people. But, my lord, it is 
more especially to the members of the bar that your long 
and eminent judicial career has exhibited a bright example of 
the display of all those attributes which best become a judge 
in the discharge of his many duties. To a clear and powerful 
intellect, to legal and constitutional learning at once acute 
and profound, to an unwearied and patient assiduity and 
attention, your lordship has ever added the estimable and 
scarcely less important qualities of unvarying courtesy of 
demeanour, evenness of temper and kindliness of heart. My 
lord, in bidding you farewell, we rejoice to think that your 
country- will not be altogether deprived of your invaluable 
services, and that your well-tried abilities and experience 
may yet be called into action in the council of the sove- 
reign." 

To this eloquent and truthful address the judge made a 
most affecting reply ; in the course of which he gave some 
excellent advice to the younger members of the profession 
as to the preservation of that honourable character which 
has always belonged to it. The allusion made by the 
attorney-general to the judge's future services referred to his 
having been admitted to a seat in the Privy Council, and to 
be a member of its judicial committee. On the sittings of 
that tribunal he has regularly attended for the six years that 
have since elapsed. 

That his character and merits were appreciated most 
highly by those in power, has been fully proved by the 



176 THOMAS COLTMAN. Victoria. 

varied services that have been required of him. He was se- 
lected as a member of many important commissions. Among 
them was that in 1834, to inquire into the arrangements of 
the Inns of Court and Chancery for promoting the study of 
the law and jurisprudence; that in 1858, to inquire into the 
expediency of bringing into one neighbourhood the different 
courts of justice ; besides the Oxford University commission, 
which sat for four years, and the Education commission, 
which sat for three. 

In the devotion of his services to the public, he has not 
been unmindful of private and local calls. On his resigna- 
tion he retired to Heath's Court, Ottery St. Mary, the house 
in which his father resided, and devoted a good portion of 
his leisure to the charitable and educational establishments 
of the county ; and by several interesting and amusing 
lectures (none of them more so than his " Recollections of 
the Circuit ") delivered to various literary societies, encou- 
raged the efforts to promote rational enjoyment among all 
classes. The internal restoration of the beautiful priory 
church in his neighbourhood has been completely effected by 
his HberaUty and exertions. 

Of Sir John Coleridge's six children, four still survive, 
the eldest of whom, John Duke Coleridge, is following 
his father's footsteps in the law, and is already one of her 
majesty's counsel. 

COLTMAN, THOMAS. 

Just. C. P. 1837. 

See under the Reign of William IV. 

Sir Thomas Coltman was descended from an old and 
respectable family in the county of Lincoln, where they 
enjoyed considerable possessions. He was the youngest son 
of John Coltman, Esq., then resident at Beverley, and was 



1837— THOMAS COLTMAN. 177 

born on July 9, 1781. Surviving all his brothers and 
sisters he ultimately succeeded to the paternal estate. His 
education was commenced at the Charterhouse in London, 
from which he proceeded to Rugby, where he obtained an 
exhibition; and in 1798 was removed to Trinity College,' 
Cambridge. After a diligent and successful pursuit of his 
studies, particularly in the classics and mathematics, he took 
his degree of B.A. in January 1803, and in 1805 he gained 
the " blue ribbon " of the university by being elected a 
Fellow of his college. 

Entering the Inner* Temple, he acquired under the tuition 
of that eminent special pleader Mr. Tidd, that mastery of 
the law which enabled so many of that gentleman's pupils 
to rise to high distinction. Called to the bar in 1808, he 
attended the sessions at Manchester and joined the Northern 
circuit, in which he secured, by his reputation as a well- 
grounded lawyer and a judicious adviser, so considerable a 
share of business that eventually he was appointed a king's 
counsel. This honour was not conferred upon him till 1832, 
twenty-four years after he had laboured at the bar ; and was 
not attended by any superior advantages, his modesty and 
distaste for display not qualifying him for a successful leader 
at Nisi Prius. By his solid qualities he was better fitted 
for a judicial seat, and at the end of five years an opportunity 
occurred for his promotion. 

On February 24, 1837, he was raised to the bench of the 
Common Pleas as the successor of Mr. Justice Gaselee, 
receiving the customary honour of knighthood. In that 
court he remained for the last twelve years of his Kfe, per- 
forming his duties in that quiet and calm manner which 
does not attract the " million," but which greatly a.ssisted and 
was highly appreciated by his colleagues ; who, in the lan- 
guage of a graceful tribute to his memory, published by one 
of them soon after his death, ^^knew and admired his 

VOL. IX. N 



178 JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. Victoria. 

dispassionate^ candid, and just mind ; his clear, acnte, and 
strong understanding ; his sound and accurate knowledge of 
the law ; his even temper, patience, and fimmess ; his care 
and skill in investigating cases ; his excellent judgment in 
deciding them." Though somewhat slow in forming his 
opinions they were always to be relied on, and though not 
brilliant or dashing, he was essentially a just and right- 
minded judge. 

He fell a victim to the Asiatic cholera at his house in 
Hyde Park Gardens on July 11, 1849, leaving four children 
by his wife, Anna, sister of Samuel Duckworth, Esq., 
master in Chancery.' 

COPLEY, JOHN SINGLETON. Lobd Lyndhurst. 

Lord Chang. 1841. 
See under the Beigns of George IV. and William lY. 

This eminent lawyer and statesman was an American by 
birth. He was bom at Boston on May 21, 1772, before the 
war of independence had commenced ; and he lived to see 
the disseverance of those states, the union of which was the 
result of that war. His father, John Singleton Copley, of 
Irish extraction, was then practising in that city the art, in. 
which he became afterwards distinguished in England, 
whither he brought his family when his son was two years 
old. His fame was soon established as a painter, both in 
portraiture and history ; in the latter of which departments 
he is most known by his pictures of the " Death of Major 
Pierson," who was killed at Jersey in 1781, of the " Death 
of Lord Chatham," the great minister, and of the " Siege of 
Gibraltar." The high value at which his works are now 
estimated is proved by the large prices they produced in the 

* Memoir of the jadge, in Law Mag. for Noyember 1849, by Mr Baron Parke 
(afterwards Lord Wensleydale), 



1837— JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. 179 

recent sale of the late lord chancellor's collection. The 
artist died in 1815, aged 74, when his son had already taken 
the first steps in his successful career ; and his wife, who 
was a daughter of Richard Clarke Esq., survived till 1836, 
happy in witnessing the highest honours by which her son 
was graced. 

Young Copley was christened with his father's names, and 
though originally destined for his father's profession, in the 
elements of which he made some progress, the plan was 
happily set aside in consequence of the mental powers he 
early exhibited. At the age of nineteen he was sent to 
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he pursued his studies so 
energetically that he took his degree of B.A. in 1794 with 
the honours of second wrangler and Smith's prizeman ; and 
of M.A. in 1797, having in the interim been elected a fellow 
of his college. His delight in mathematical studies, and also 
in practical chemistry and mechanics, he retained throughout 
his long life ; and his attainments in them were of infinite 
service to him in his professional career. This he commenced 
by entering himself as a member of Lincoln's Inn, and by 
becoming a pupil of Mr. Tidd, from whose instructions so 
many men have risen to eminence. He spent part of the 
following years in visiting the land of his birth. 

On June 8, 1804, he was called to the bar, and at the 
same time selected the Midland circuit. One of his earliest 
clients was Lord Palmerston, the present prime minister, 
then first entering into political life, for whom he appeared 
before a committee of the House of Commons on a double 
return for the borough of Horsham in 1806 ; but failed in 
securing the seat. The only book which Mr. Copley ever 
published with his name was a report of that case. Both on 
the circuit and in Westminster Hall he gradually acquired a 
suflScient practice to enable him to exhibit his peculiar powers ; 
and with such success that he was induced to accept the 

N 2 



180 JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. VicTOBiA. 

degree of serjeant-at-law in 1813. Entering now in some mea- 
sure into public life, he avowed Tory, or what would now be 
called Conservative, principles, to the surprise of some of his 
contemporaries, who charged him with having been notorious 
in the early part of his life for the ultra-liberality of his profes- 
sions. Whatever were his youthful notions, and however un- 
guardedly he may have expressed them among his private 
associates, it is hardly fair to refuse a man the exercise of more 
mature reflection, and to bind him down to the rash phrases of 
a juvenile imagination ; especially when he had never joined 
any Whig society, nor connected himself with any public 
measure of that party. But the subject of the charge ever 
denied its truth ; and the best proof of the sincerity of his 
convictions is his steady adherence to them, through good 
report and bad report, for the long period of fifty subsequent 
years; — to say nothing of the high sense of honour and 
extreme liberality for which he was always remarkable both 
in his professional and political career; which effectually 
contradict the idea that any personal motives could have 
influenced his choice. 

As a leading advocate, by the beautiful simplicity of his 
style, by the logical arrangement of his arguments, and by 
the aptness of his illustrations, his speeches were wonderfully 
effective both on juries and judges. His defence of James 
Watson against a charge of high treason in June 1817 was a 
most successful display of his extraordinary powers, resulting 
in his client's acquittal. The Government were so struck 
with the talent which he had exhibited in this case, and 
some others in which they were parties, that in the following 
October he was specially retained for the crown in the in- 
dictments against Brandreth and others for high treason 
tried at Derby. ^ In the next year, besides being made 
king's Serjeant and chief justice of Chester, he was intro- 

« State Trials, xxxii. 21, 766, 957, 1135, 1307. 



1837— JOHN SINGLETON COPLET. 181 

duced into parliament for the ministerial borough of Yar- 
mouth in the Isle of Wight, which he soon after exchanged 
for Ashburton: and in 1826 he had the honour of being 
elected as representative of his own university. 

In the senate his great capacity for debate was so efficiently 
displayed that his early promotion became certain; and 
accordingly in July 1819 he was appointed solicitor-general, 
and received the usual accolade of knighthood. During his 
tenure of this office the spirit of sedition was prevalent 
throughout England, and in the legislative remedies that 
were then introduced, as well as in the prosecution of 
Thistlewood and the other Cato Street conspirators. Sir 
John Copley exhibited his extraordinary talent. In the 
unfortunate trial also of Queen Caroline it was his duty to 
take an active part, in the performance of which he tempered 
the conviction he felt of the guilt of the accused lady with 
the decorum due to her exalted rank ; satisfying his em- 
ployers by his admirable performance, without incurring the 
obloquy to which they were subjected. At this time Lord 
Tenterden in a letter to Sir Egerton Bridges gives this 
opinion of him : *^ The solicitor-general has less learning 
than the attorney-general (Gifford), but a much better 
person, countenance and manner ; a good head and a kind 
heart, and not deficient in learning. I suppose he will soon 
fill one of our high offices in the law." ' In January 1824, 
he was promoted to the attorney-generalship ; and on Sep- 
tember 14, 1826, he received the patent of master of the 
Rolls ; in both instances succeeding Sir Robert GifFord. 

He held the latter office only eight months. On Mr. 
Canning becoming prime minister Lord Eldon resigned the 
Great Seal, which was delivered to Sir John Copley on 
April 30, 1827, as lord chancellor ; he having been created 

■ State Trials, xxziii. 711, 958, 1178, 1338; Lord CampbeH's Ch. Just, 
iii. 296. 



182 JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. ViCTOBiA. 

Baron Lyndhurst a few days before. This his first chancel- 
lorship lasted three years and seven months, during the 
successive administrations of Mr. Canning, Lord Goderich, 
and the Duke of Wellington. On the accession of the 
Whigs to power in the first year of the reign of William IV., 
he resigned the Seal on November 22, 1830 ; but did not 
remain unemployed quite two months. He accepted the 
appointment of lord chief baron of the Exchequer on January 
18, 1831, in the place of Sir William Alexander ; with the 
perfect understanding that he retained his political opinions. 
His independence of ministerial influence was shown by his 
resistance, with all his energy and strength, of the bills for 
reform in Parliament, and of various other measures proposed 
by the party while it remained in power. 

When the Conservatives regained the administration he 
was at once replaced at the head of the court of Chancery 
on November 21, 1834, retaining the office of lord chief 
baron for the next month. His presidency of the Exchequer 
had exhibited his high judicial capacity ; and had been prin- 
cipally distinguished by the luminous judgment which he 
pronounced in the great case of Small v. Attwood, which, 
though it was reversed on appeal in the House of Lords by 
a close minority of a single vote, was by most people con- 
sidered to be well founded, and by all, whether supporters 
or opposers, greatly admired. 

After a short term of five months he again on April 23, 
1835, resigned the Seal to his political opponents, who re- 
tained power for the next six years. During that interval 
he maintained the ascendency he had gained in the House of 
Lords, by his powerful opposition to the various innovations 
introduced by the Whig ministers, and by submitting to the 
House useful amendments of the law ; and still more by the 
annual comprehensive exposure of the ineffective legislation 
at the end of each session, in which he visited the successive 



1837— JOHN SINGLETON COPLEY. 183 

♦ 

failures with alternate rebuke and sarcasm. These regular 
attacks increasing the general unpopularity of the party, 
the ministers were at length obliged to resign; and Lord 
Lyndhurst was installed in his third and last chancellorship 
on September 3, 1841. His merits had been recognised 
and rewarded in the previous year by his university electing 
him their lord high steward. 

For nearly five years he devoted himself to his judicial 
duties, till the retirement of Sir Robert Peel, when he 
resigned the Seal on July 4, 1846. When the Conservative 
party regained power for short periods in 1852 and 1858, 
Lord Lyndhurst felt himself too old to undertake the 
responsible labours of the chancellorship, or to accept the 
offered seat in the cabinet, being in his eightieth year at the 
first of these periods; but during nearly the whole time since 
his resignation to almost the last year of his life, when he 
had attained his ninetieth year, he entered with his accustomed 
spirit into most of the constitutional questions that arose, 
and surprised the House by his intellectual vigour. 

No statesman has maintained for so long a succession of 
years a name so unsullied as Lord Lyndhurst, and few have 
died in possession of more veneration and regard. His death 
occurred from natural decay on October 18, 1863, in the 
ninety-third year of his age, at his house in George Street, 
Hanover Square, where his father had lived and died. 

He married, first, Sarah Geary, the daughter of Charles 
Brunsden, Esq., and widow of Colonel Charles Thomas of the 
first foot-guards, who fell at Waterloo. By her he had three 
daughters. His second wife was Georgiana, daughter of 
Lewis Goldsmith, Esq., by whom he had one daughter. 

COTTENHAM, Eakl of. See C. C. Pepts. 
CRANWORTH, LORD. See R. M. Rolfe. 



184 CRESSWELL CRESSWELL. Victoria. 

CRESSWELL, CRESSWELL. 
Just. C. P. 1842. 

The family of Cresswell of Cresswell near Morpeth in 
Northumberland dates from the earliest age of English 
history : a regular succession of male heirs having possessed 
the estate from the days of Richard I. till the death of John 
Cresswell in 1781. That gentleman left two daughters, one 
of whom, Frances Dorothea, married Francis Easterby, Esq., 
of Blackheath, who purchasing the other sister's moiety 
became possessed of the whole estate, and assumed the name 
of Cresswell. Of that union Sir Cresswell Cresswell was 
the fourth son. He was bom in 1793, and, passing through 
the Charterhouse from 1806 to 1810, he went in the latter 
year to Emanuel College, Cambridge, where he had for his 
tutor the future Justice Maule. He took his degree of B. A. 
in 1814, and of M.A. in 1818 : and then pursuing his legal 
studies in the Inner Temple, was called to the bar in 1819 
and naturally joined the Northern circuit. Here he soon 
showed that ability and power that ever after distinguished 
him, and long before he became by seniority the leader of 
the circuit, scarcely any cause was tried in which he was not 
engaged on one side or the other. In 1830 he was appointed 
recorder of Hull ; and in 1834 received a silk gown. 

Though hitherto he had only shone as a lawyer, his political 
zeal in 1841 induced him to aid the Conservative cause by 
entering into a contest for Liverpool against the Whig mem- 
ber, Mr. William Ewart, whom he signally defeated. He sat 
for the same place at the next election in 1841. In the senate 
he took a prominent part in all constitutional questions, and 
by his argumentative powers, his shrewdness and learning, 
secured to himself that admiration in the House, which it is 
not generally the fortune of lawyers to gain. 

Sir Robert Peel, on the very first vacancy that occurred 



> 



)837— CRESSWELL CRESSWELL. 185 

after he became prime minister^ selected Mr. Cresswell as 
the successor of Mr. Justice Bosanquet on the bench of the 
Common Pleas ; whereupon he was knighted. In that court 
from January 1842 to January 1858, he discharged the 
duties in the most admirable manner; and though at the 
latter date he was entitled to retire, having served more than 
fifteen years, he consented to undertake the organisation of 
the new court then created for deciding testamentary and 
divorce causes. The Whigs were then in power, but instead 
of choosing one of their own party to fill the office, they 
honourably requested a political opponent as the most com-^ 
petent man to devote his energies to give effect to their 
untried scheme. The manner in which he overcame the 
difiiculties attendant on the new judicature, and met the 
perpetually increasing demands on its decisions, which un- 
expectedly accumulated in overwhelming numbers, will be 
best described in the eloquent language of Sir Robert Philli- 
more, the queen's advocate, on the opening of the court after 
his lamented decease : 

" To-day, for the first time since the constitution of this 
court, we miss the well-known presence of the judge whose 
conscientious care and unceasing assiduity so moulded, 
formed, and shaped the practice and proceedings of this 
tribunal as to enable it to discharge the functions for which it 
had been created. ... It seems to me, my lord, only decent 
that on the first opening of the court since his death some 
tribute should be paid to his memory in this the scene of his 
constant exertions. Sir Cresswell Cresswell was not a 
faultless judge, and would, while living, have despised, the 
flatterer who told him that he was. But he possessed many 
and rare qualifications for the judicial office. To a memory 
of extraordinary swiftness and tenacity, to habits of most 
careful and accurate thinking, to great quickness of percep- 
tion, to considerable logical power, to a ready command of 



186 CRESSWELL CRESSWELL, Victoria. 

apt and proper language^ aiding and adorning a capacity 
seldom surpassed for clear and luminous statement^ he added 
a profound knowledge of the common law of this country, 
and an industry so conscientious and indefatigable that it 
enabled him during the time he sat upon that bench thoroughly 
to master the principles and precedents of a jurisprudence 
with which he had not previously been familiar. The task 
which he undertook was, notwithstanding all his natural and 
acquired endowments, extremely arduous, and one to the 
execution of which he was mainly impelled, I verily believe, 
by a sense of duty to his sovereign and his country. The 
experiment of submitting questions of the gravest and most 
important character, affecting the nearest and dearest in- 
terests of society, hitherto decided by the calm wisdom of a 
single judge, for the first time to the very different arbitra- 
ment of a jury, was by universal consent as successfully 
made by Sir C. Cresswell as the nature of the subject and 
the mode of trial would allow. The vast amount of business 
which soon inundated his court rendered his labours, con- 
trary to all expectations, greater perhaps than those of any 
other judge in this hall at the time of his death. Those who 
knew how irksome and oppressive a great part of his business 
had become to him, the affluence of his private circumstances, 
the completeness of his title to well-earned leisure and 
honourable repose, knew also that the same strong sense of 
duty which had originated, protracted — alas, too long ! — his 
judicial labours, and caused him, like a brave and high- 
minded man as he was, to die at his post. It cannot be said 
that in these few words of respectful and cordial regret 

' fungar inani 

• ' Munere,' 

for the example of such men is of great value to our country; 
their memory blossoms in the dust." 



1837- CHARLES CROMPTON. 187 

To this address the new judge. Sir James Wilde, made a 
most graceful reply, acknowledging the deep debt of grati- 
tude he owed to his predecessor in making his own task 
more easy. 

Sir Cresswell's death was very sudden. He had acci- 
dentally been knocked off his horse on July 17, 1863, and 
injured in his knee-cap ; but was proceeding rapidly towards 
recovery, when on the 29th he was suddenly seized with a 
fainting fit, and expired before medical assistance could be 
procured.* 

CROMPTON, CHARLES. 

JosT. Q- B. 1852. 

Sir Charles Crompton is now the senior puisne judge of 
the court of Queen's Bench. He is descended from an old 
family settled at Derby as eminent bankers ; several of them 
having been not only mayors of that town but also members 
for the county, and one of them raised to a baronetcy in 
1838 which died with him in 1849. The judge is the third 
son of Peter Crompton, Esq. M.D., of Eaton near Liverpool, 
by his cousin Mary, the daughter of John Crompton, Esq., 
of Chorley in Lancashire. 

He is the third judge of whom an account has been given 
in this reign, whose father followed the medical profession, 
the two others being the present lord chancellor. Lord West- 
bury, and the late master of the Rolls, Lord Langdale. It 
is somewhat remarkable that of the judges of the reign of 
Victoria there are at least eight who can boast of medical 
paternity. Besides the above three, there are chief justice Lord 
Denman, and justices Maule, Park, Vaughan, and Willes. 
To these may be added lord chancellor Lord Cottenham, who 

' The dates and early facts in this sketch are from a letter with which the 
judge kind! J favoared me a few months before his lamented death. 



188 BICHABD BUDDEN CBOWDEB. Victoria^ 

was the nephew of the eminent physician to George III., 
Sir Lucas Pepys, Bart. 

Charles Crompton was born at Derby in 1797, and was 
educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated with 
great distinction, obtaining honours in 1814^ 1815, and 1816. 
He then entered the Inner Temple, and was admitted as a bar- 
rister in November 1821. On the Northern and the Western 
circuits he soon became known as a deeply-read lawyer, and 
consequently acquired great experience in the practical part 
of the profession both there and in Westminster Hall. He 
successively filled the posts of tub-man and post-man in the 
court of Exchequer, where he was counsel for the Board of 
Stamps and Taxes. Of the decisions in that court he was a 
reporter from 1830 to 1836, in conjunction at first with Mr. 
(afterwards Chief Justice) Jervis, and subsequently with 
Messrs. Meeson and Koscoe. In 1836 he was appointed 
assessor of the court of Passage at Liverpool; and in 1851 
he was selected as one of the commissioners of inquiry into 
the proceedings, practice and jurisdiction of the court of 
Chancery. 

The retirement of Sir John Patteson made a void in the 
court of Queen's Bench, which it appeared difficult to 
supply; but none could be selected so competent as Mr. 
Crompton, who was accordingly appointed in the beginning 
of February 1852, and received soon after the customary 
knighthood. 

He married one of the daughters of Thomas Fletcher, 
Esq., of Liverpool, by whom he has several children. 

CROWDER, RICHARD BUDDEN. 
Just. C. P. 1864. 

Sir Richard Budden Crowder, the son of William 
Henry Crowder, Esq., of Montague Place, was bom in 



1837— THOMAS DENMAN. 189 

London about the year 1795. Educated at Eton, he went 
from thence to Trinity College, Cambridge, and after taking 
his degrees was entered at the Middle Temple and called to 
the bar in May 1821. On the Western circuit he got into 
good practice as well as in London, and in both displayed 
great power and ability. He obtained a silk gown in 1837, 
and was appointed recorder of Bristol in 1846. For a short 
time he was in parliament, being elected member for 
Liskeard in 1849, but was not so eminent as a senator as he 
was as a barrister. In the latter character he was very 
effective with the jury and the court, by his sound common 
sense, and his forcible if not eloquent, oratory. He held 
the posts of counsel of the Admiralty and judge advocate of 
the Fleet at the time of his promotion to the bench. That 



event occurred on the death of Mr. Justice Talfourd in 
March 1854, when he was selected to supply the vacancy in 
the Common Pleas. There he continued for nearly six 
years, distinguished by his honourable and manly bearing, 
and his courtesy and urbanity. He died unmarried on 
December 5, 1859, from a violent attack of ague, affecting 
his heart. ^ 

DENMAN, THOMAS, Lord Denman. 

Ch. Q. B. 1837. 
See, under the Reign of William IV. 

No chief justice of England since the death of the Earl of 
Mansfield has been regarded with more personal esteem and 
affection than Lord Denman; and none since the days of 
Lord Chief Justice Holt have left a character of bolder 
independence, or more fearless and uncompromising patriotism. 
Though he may not have possessed, or at least not exhibited, 
such abstruse legal learning as some of his predecessors, the 
various addresses which were presented to him on his retire- 

^ Law Mug. Feb. 1860, p. 407. 



190 THOMAS DENMAN. Victoria. 

ment from the bench, when flattery could no longer be pro- 
fitable, will remain as a lasting evidence, not merely of his 
popularity as a man, but of the estimation in which he was 
held by his contemporaries of all classes, for his zeal, vigour, 
eloquence, and sagacity as an advocate, and his inflexible 
integrity, his noble and manly sentiments, his humanity, his 
patience, his impartiality, and his dignified and graceful 
urbanity, as a judge. 

Thomas Denman was bom on February 23, 1779, at his 
father's house in Queen Street, Golden Square, which in 
honour of the infant then brought into the world has lately 
assumed the name of Denman Street. He was the only son 
of Dr. Thomas Denman, the most eminent physician of his 
time in his particular branch of science, and of his wife 
Elizabeth daughter of Alexander Brodie, Esq., a descendant 
from the ancient family of Brodie of Brodie in Morayshire.^ 
The family from which he sprang was originally settled in 
Nottinghamshire, some time at East Ketford, and more lately 
at Bevercotes, but Dr. Denman's father removed to Bake- 
well in Derbyshire, where for many years he practised as a 
surgeon. The judge therefore is another instance, of which 
there are so many in this reign, of the legal bench being 
supplied by men of medical lineage. The doctor was one of 
a numerous family, and, having lost his father at an early age, 
had before he settled in London passed through a long series 
of trials and vicissitudes, of which he gives an interesting ac- 
count in the commencement of the sixth edition of his great 
work " An Introduction to the Practice of Midwifery." 
Besides this he was the author of a variety of other valuable 
medical works, which ensured him a high reputation among his 
contemporaries, and have rendered his name an authority at 

' This lady was the aunt of two nephews eminent in the medical and legal 
professions, Sir Benjamin Brodie, Bart., the celebrated surgeon, and Peter 
Brodie, Esq., the well-known conveyancer. 



1 837— THOMAS DENMAN. 191 

the present day. He died in 1815, and saw his son advancing 
with steady step in his honourable career. 

That son when he was scarce two years of age was very 
near perishing in the flames of his father's house in Queen 
Street, but was saved from his imminent danger by the cool 
intrepidity of his father. At three years he commenced his 
school education under that amiable and excellent woman 
Mrs. Barbauld, then resident at Palgrave in Norfolk, and to 
her system of instruction during the two years he was under 
her tuition, the judge was accustomed to attribute the 
retentive memory and whatever grace and facility of diction 
he afterwards attained; and there is little doubt that it 
tended to the establishment of that fearless and truth- 
adoring and humane character for which he became dis- 
tinguished. Nor is this to be wondered at, when we 
consider what great and indelible impressions on the mind 
are produced by infant teaching. 

After leaving Mrs. Barbauld's, he was placed for a short 
time under the Rev. Dr. Thompson at Kensington ; whence 
he proceeded when seven years old to Eton. His industry 
and application during the ten years that he remained there 
are evidenced by the stores of classical literature which 
remained in his memory, and by the delight which he took 
in them, and his readiness in quoting them ; and his social 
character among his schoolfellows may be estimated by the 
many lasting friendships which he formed there. To the 
last period of his life he retained that affection for the noble 
establishment with which those who have been educated 
in its walls almost invariably regard it. 

From 1796 to 1800 he spent at St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge, and took his degree of B.A. in the latter year, and 
that of M.A. in 1803, without aiming at a place on the 
list of university honours, as he had a great distaste to 
mathematical studies, and devoted himself entirely to his 



192 THOMAS DENMAN. Victoria. 

favourite classics. Though not a competitor for prizes in 
the schools^ he prided himself on his prowess in athletic 
exercises, and used to relate with exultation in after life, 
that he walked from Cambridge to his father's house in 
Burlington Street in one day, keeping up the rate of four 
miles an hour throughout the journey. His companion in 
this feat was Lancelot Shadwell, the future vice-chancellor 
of England, and the senior medallist of the year, with whom 
he had formed an intimacy which lasted during their lives. 

Now turning his attention to the study of the law he 
entered Lincoln's Inn ; and for the great branches of the law 
of real property and the practice of special pleading he 
placed himself as a pupil under the two best instructors, the 
great conveyancer Charles Butler, and the eminent pleader 
Mr. Tidd, the initiator into legal mysteries of so many 
remarkable men. Mr. Denman, after due preparation, 
himself practised for a short time as a special pleader until 
1806, when he was called to the bar on May 9, and joined 
the Midland circuit and Lincoln sessions. He had two 
years before married Theodosia Ann, the eldest daughter of 
the Rev. Richard Vevers, rector of Saxby in Leicestershire. 

While he was making the slow progress which is so much 
the fate of junior barristers, in his chambers, No. 25, Old 
Square, Lincoln's Inn, he employed some part of his leisure 
in writing critiques on the classical literature of the day 
for the " Monthly Review," then the leading Whig journal, 
until it was superseded by the advances of its Edinburgh 
competitor. But he gradually got the ear of the court, 
and so early as 1809 by his lucid, elaborate, and successful 
argument on the right application of the rule in Shelley's 
case, in opposition to so able an opponent as Mr. Copley 
(afterwards Lord Lyndhurst), proved that he had not 
sat at the feet of the great conveyancing Gamaliel in 
vain.^ But the event to which he attributed his ultimate 
1 Doe d. Earl of Lindsey v, Colyear, 11 East, 548. 



1887— THOMAS DENMAN. 193 

success, and which recommended him to the first honours he 
received, was his employment on the trials of the Luddites 
in 1817, when he was engaged for the defence of the 
prisoners arraigned at Derby. 

At the general election in 1818 Mr. Denman obtained 
his first seat in parliament as representative of Wareham in 
Dorsetshire, under the auspices of Mr. Calcraft, a gentleman 
of whig principles. He soon embarked on the stormy sea of 
politics, and distinguished himself by the boldness with 
which he attacked abuses and pronounced opinions to which 
he adhered through life ; and in particular by advocating the 
necessity of an amelioration of the criminal law. On this 
last subject he took the opportunity, while supporting Sir 
Samuel Shepherd's bill for abolishing trial by battle, of 
saying that he " hoped that the spirit of the age which had 
made this reform necessary, would not stop here, but follow 
up the principle of improvement in other parts of our 
criminal , administration which cried aloud for revision and 
reform." Whoever looks through the pages of Hansard at 
this time will find that he invariably opposed the waste of 
public money, and the encroachment on the liberties of the 
people, severely condemning government for their conduct in 
suppressing the famous Manchester meeting, speaking 6f it 
as " an attempt to maintain that military despotism was 
consistent with English law and justice." In this his first 
year he had obtained a position of considerable importance 
in the House of Commons, and had established a reputation 
which was soon to be extended throughout the country. 

The old king George IIL died on January 29, 1820, and 
the Prince of Wales, who had held the regency of the 
kingdom for the nine previous years, " heavily in clouds " 
commenced his actual reign as George IV. A conspiracy, 
widely spread among the lower orders of the people, had been 
organised to overturn the government of the country just 

VOL. IX. o 



194 THOMAS DENMAN. Victobia. 

before his accession, and within a month after it a plan was 
concerted for the commencement of the outbreak by the 
murder of all the ministers at a cabinet dinner at Lord 
Harrowby's. The plot was discovered only just in time. 
On the very day of its intended execution the body of 
traitors were arrested in the midst of their preparations ; and 
their conviction and execution soon followed. So horrible 
were the disclosures at the trials of what they intended to 
perpetrate, that no pity could be felt for those who suffered 
the punishment due to their crimes. But the agitation 
arising from what was called the Cato Street conspiracy had 
scarcely subsided before the public were excited by the 
prospect of an investigation of a very different nature, but 
threatening equally perilous consequences. In the mean 
time Mr. Denman had at the general election of that year 
been returned for Nottingham, after a most severe contest. 

Queen Caroline, the inquiry into whose conduct while 
princess of Wales has been several times referred to, and 
who was living apart from her husband in foreign lands, 
had intimated her intention of coming to England to claim the 
rights and privileges due to her new rank ; which it was known 
that the king intended to resist, as he had already excluded 
her name out of the usual prayers in the Liturgy. One of 
the first acts of her progress towards England was to appoint 
Mr. (since Lord) Brougham her attorney-general, and Mr. 
Denman her solicitor-general. Numerous negotiations took 
place between the government and her law officers, in order 
to avert the inconveniences which threatened to follow her 
arrival. But all endeavours of accommodation failing, her 
Majesty entered London on June 7, amidst the triumphant 
acclamations of the people, and the whole town, partly from 
sympathy, and partly from force and fear, was illuminated in 
the evening. 

The cause of this popular feeUng was not so much a 



1837— THOMAS DENMAN. 195 

conviction of the queen's innocence, for of that the majority 
knew little and cared less, as a disgust at the indignities 
offered to a female, and an admiration of the spirit she ex- 
hibited in hastening to face her accusers ; together with the 
growing unpopularity of the king, much increased by the 
knowledge of the grounds of recrimination which the queen, 
even if the charges against her were true, could justly bring 
against him. In the interval between June 7 and July 5 
every effort was made to find expedients to satisfy both 
parties, without retractation on one side or admission on the 
other ; an arrangement rendered impossible, when the first 
condition was a restoration to the Liturgy of the queen's 
name which had been already excluded. Meetings of 
arbitrators, motions in parliament, were alike ineffectual, 
the interesting protocols and debates in which will be found 
in Hansard and the Annual Register for the year. In all 
these proceedings Mr. Denman of course took a prominent 
part, and in the new House of Commons, elected on the 
accession of George IV., he spoke with so much indignation, 
boldness, and force, that he drew from the mouth of a 
member a question to which the spirit of prophecy might 
be attributed. Mr. R. Martin asked her majesty's 
solicitor-general "if by any train of fortuitous events he 
should at some future period find himself elevated to the bench 
of this country (and as all things were in the hands of 
Providence such an event was by no means unlikely) how he 
would like to have hurled against his judicial dignity any 
former opinion which he might have professed in that house 
or elsewhere ?" Mr. Denman was certainly prophetic in the 
dignified answer that he gave to this impertinence. He said 
that "he did not fear that any opinion he had delivered or 
should deliver in that House would ever rise up in judgment 
against him, nor should he desert those opinions in any 
situation in which he might be placed." 

i O 2 



196 THOMAS DENMAN. Victoria. 

The "Green Bag" containing the dirty details was 
brought in and referred to a secret committee, upon whose 
report the Bill of Pains and Penalties was introduced into 
the House of Lords on July 5, the object of which was to 
deprive the queen of her title and to dissolve the marriage 
between her and the king. The second reading was put off 
till August 17, in order to give time for collecting the 
witnesses both for and against the prosecution, and soon 
after that day the actual trial commenced. Looking at the 
importance of the question and the evil consequences that 
might result from it, with the array of combatants that 
joined in the fight, it might truly be called the battle of 
giants. Nearly the whole talent of the bar was engaged, 
and of the eleven counsel who appeared, six on one side and 
five on the other, no less than ten were afterwards elevated 
to high legal distinction. That the advocates for the crown 
should be so promoted is not surprising, but that those who 
were employed in a task which would not tend to make them 
objects of royal favour, and which they executed with un- 
compromising boldness and a total disregard of personal 
consequences, should be selected for similar honours, is a 
gratifying proof that in this country real merit will be 
always recognised, and honest zeal meet its reward. The 
counsel for the prosecution were the attorney-general Sir 
Robert Gifford, afterwards Lord Gifford, the solicitor- 
general. Sir John Copley, afterwards Lord Lyndhurst, the 
king's advocate, Sir Charles Robinson, afterwards chief 
judge of the Admiralty Court, Mr. Parke, afterwards Lord 
Wensleydale, and Dr. Addams, the only one who was not 
promoted. The advocates for the queen were her attorney- 
general Mr. Brougham, afterwards Lord Brougham, her 
solicitor-general Mr. Denman, afterwards Lord Denman, 
Dr. Lushington, afterwards chief judge of the Admiralty, 
Mr. Williams, afterwards a judge of the King's Bench, Mr. 



1837— THOMAS DENMAN. 197 

Tindal, afterwards chief justice of the Common Pleas, and 
Mr. Wilde, afterwards Lord Truro. One only of these, 
namely Sir Nicolas Tindal, received his judicial promotion 
while George IV. remained on the throne, and though the 
two principal advocates received legal rank during the reign, 
it was not granted till near the end of it, and then with the 
greatest reluctance and difficulty. With so much displeasure 
did the king regard Mr. Denman for the bitter terms in 
which he had alluded to the grounds of recrimination which 
the king had afforded, that he was omitted from the batch of 
king's counsel created on the accession of the liberal-minded 
Lord Lyndhurst to the chancellorship ; and it was only by 
his bold remonstrance that the Duke of Wellington was 
enabled to remove the injustice. 

During the progress of the trial the excitement of the 
people was unbounded. They wholly discredited the evidence 
adduced against her majesty, declaring that the witnesses 
were suborned, and when the ministers were obliged to 
abandon the bill, the delight of the populace almost amounted 
to frenzy. In the queen's popularity the advocates of her 
innocence, who had shown such fearless gallantry in her 
defence, of course largely participated, and Mr. Denman on 
retiring after the trial to Cheltenham to join his family, was 
dragged into the town by the excited mob, which then pro- 
ceeded to demolish every window of the rector, who had 
refused their application to permit the bells to be rung; and 
breaking open the church rung a merry peal in spite of him. 
The efforts of Mr. Denman on behalf of the queen, whose 
guiltlessness he was reported to have firmly believed, did 
not cease with the abandonment of the bill. He advocated 
strenuously the restoration of her name to the liturgy, and 
resisted indignantly an attempt to reduce her allowance ; and 
though the interest excited by her persecution naturally died 
away, and her popularity gradually decreased, Mr. Denman 



198 THOMAS DENMAN. Victoria. 

continued true to her till her death in the next year, when 
it was partially renewed in consequence of the indignities 
offered at her funeral. 

The popular effervescence had not subsided when Sir 
John Sylvester the recorder of London died and Mr. Knowles 
was appointed his successor in 1822^ leaving a vacancy in 
his former place of common serjeant. This was in the gift 
of the Common Council and would naturally have fallen to 
their senior pleader, Mr. BoUand, who was a deserved 
favourite in the city. But the queen's party in the council 
determined to testify their admiration of the exertions made 
in her defence by Mr. Denman, on whom in the previous 
year they had conferred the freedom of the city, and elected 
him to the oflSce by a majority of 131 over 119 for Mr. 
Bolland, who some years after was appointed a baron of the 
Exchequer. 

In this new charcter Mr. Denman disappointed his oppo- 
nents, who gave him credit for more eloquence than law, by 
exhibiting those judicial powers which are most admirable 
while presiding over a criminal court, patience, firmness, and 
humanity ; and by the sweetness of his disposition, joined 
with the natural dignity of his character, he gained the 
affection and respect, even of those who differed most from 
him in politics. These feelings found utterance in the various 
addresses they presented to him upon every occasion of his 
advancement. 

He retired from parliament from 1826 to 1830, when on 
the general election consequent on the accession of William 
IV. he was again elected for Nottingham, which he con- 
tinued to represent till his elevation to the bench. 

On the death of the queen in 1821 he of course lost the 
precedence which his oflSce of her solicitor-general gave him 
in the courts, and was obliged to retire behind the bar ; and 
it was not till seven years afterwards, in 1828, that he 



1837— THOMAS DENMAN. 199 

received a silk gown. From that time hia promotion was 
rapid. William IV. in 1830 succeeded to the crown, and 
on the accession of the Whig ministry, scorning to remember 
the personal attack which Mr. Denman in his zeal had 
uttered against him on the queen's trial, sanctioned his ap-» 
pointment as attorney-general on N^ovember 26, and knighted 
him. He had not filled the office of attorney-general quite 
two years when Lord Tenterden died ; and Sir Thomas was 
without a moment's hesitation appointed on November 4, 
1832, his successor as lord chief justice of the King's Bench. 

For nearly eighteen years he graced that seat with the 
highest commendation from his brother judges, the bar, and 
the public. Without pretending to the deep black-letter 
learning of some of his colleagues, he had laid up a sufficient 
store of legal knowledge to meet every requirement; and 
being deeply imbued with the principles on which the law is 
founded, knew well how to apply them in the justice he 
administered. He maintained on the bench the same inde- 
pendence, and exhibited the same courage, as distinguished 
him at the bar ; and in the famous case of Stockdale did not 
hesitate boldly to support the rights and liberties of the sub- 
ject in opposition to the assumed privileges of parliament, 
and the threats of the House of Commons. No judge ever 
showed more unaffected dignity in his demeanour, more 
kindness and courtesy to all who were in conmiunication 
with him, more patience and discrimination in investigating 
the rights of the parties before him, or more firmness and 
perspicuity in delivering his judgments. 

In March 1834 he was created a peer by the title of 
Baron Denman of Dovedale in Derbyshire ; and ventured to 
break through a custom which till his time had been always 
adopted. Previous chief justices, when they attended par- 
liament had appeared in their judicial robes, but he con- 
sidered that, as they sat in the house as peers of parliament. 



200 THOMAS DENBfAN. Victoria. 

and not as judges^ the practice was founded on mistake^ and 
therefore always attended the sittings in his ordinary dress. 
At the only trial of a peer which has taken place since the 
Duchess of Kingston's in 1776^ Lord Denman was called 
upon in consequence of the illness of Lord Cottenham the 
chancellor^ to preside as lord high steward. The Earl of 
Cardigan was indicted for shooting Captain Tuckett in a 
duel, and was acquitted from the omission of the prosecution 
to prove the identity of the man wounded with the man 
named in the indictment. 

At the age of seventy Lord Denman's health began to 
fail^ and after several months' suffering he felt that he could 
no longer perform the duties of his office with satisfaction to 
himself^ or with benefit to the public. He therefore sent in 
his resignation at the end of Hilary Term 1850, and Lord 
Campbell, who was only two years his junior, was appointed 
in his place. In no instance of a judge's retirement was so 
much regret expressed. The citizens of London, who looked 
upon themselves as among the earliest recognisers of his 
worth, and in some sort the founders of his fortune, and who 
on every occasion of his advancement had conveyed their 
public congratulations to him, and had placed his portrait on 
the walls of their council chamber, of course were not back- 
ward in their lamentations. From the whole bar, and 
specially from the members of his own (the Midland) circuit, 
from the grand juries of Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, 
Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Kent (conveying 
the sentiments of admiration and regret of the leading gentry 
of those counties) was he gratified by receiving the most 
affectionate addresses. The solicitors gave a permanent 
testimony of their participation in these feelings by placing 
his bust in their hall in Chancery Lane ; and the poet- 
laureate of the Home circuit embodied them in a beautiful 
copy of verses describing in elegant and pathetic lines the 



1837— THOMAS DENMAN. 201 

various excellences by which he was distinguished^ and 
their loss in being deprived of his example. These verses, 
so gracefully hitting off the strong points of his character, 
we are gratified in being able to lay before our readers at the 
end of our memoir. 

The sympathy thus shown in this country extended even 
to America, and was communicated in an elegant letter from 
Mr. Everett, who had been ambassador here. But the 
highest gratification experienced by Lord Denman was in 
receiving the unexampled compliment from his colleagues 
in the court in which he presided, of a valuable inkstand, in 
a beautiful classical design, accompanied by a letter the lan- 
guage of which must have been even more precious than the 
gift. His four brethren say " We do desire to bear sincere 
and considerate testimony to the leading good sense and 
ability, the industry and uprightness, the candour, patience, 
dignity, and good temper with which you have adorned the 
bench on which we have had the happiness to sit as your 
assistants. But we are bound to add to this, our gratitude 
for the uniform kindness which individually we have ex- 
perienced at your hands, the hearty acceptance which you 
have ever given to such assistance as it was our duty and 
in our power to afford you ; and the delightful friendliness, 
without change or diminution at any time, which has shed a 
peculiar charm on our private intercourse. By these we 
have been made, we trust, more useful servants to the public, 
as we are sure we have been enabled to enjoy our few leisure 
hours more perfectly." The letter bears the subscription of 
the respected names of Sir John Patteson, Sir John Cole- 
ridge, Sir WiUiam Wightman, and Sir WflHam Erie. 

Such testimonies from all classes supersede the necessity of 
concluding this memoir with any formal character of the 
chief justice. Although throughout his life he preserved his 
enjoyment of every branch of literature and science, we are 



202 THOMAS DENMAK. ViCTOBiA. 

not aware that he published any work with his name, with 
the exception of some pamphlets on political subjects : but 
he contributed many elegant translations to Bland's Greek 
Anthology, besides often relaxing himself in playful dalliance 
with the muses ; and the author is proud to remember the 
kind interest he took in the early volumes of this work. 

Though he never entirely recovered his health, aad alto- 
gether retired from public life, he lived nearly five years 
after his resignation; spending most of his time in Stony 
Middleton, near BakeweU, which he had inherited from his 
father, in those acts of charity and kindness which endeared 
him to his fellow creatures, and in contemplations which 
prepared him for his end. His death occurred on September 
22, 1854 at Stoke Albany near Kockingham. 
. Two years before that event he had to lament the loss of 
Lady Denman after a happy union of forty-eight years in 
1852. . Of the fifteen children which that union produced 
eleven survive, five sons and six daughters. The eldest 
son is now possessor of the title ; the second, Joseph, is an 
admiral in the navy ; the third, Kichard, is a barrister ; the 
fourth, George, is a queen's counsel and M.P. for Tiverton ; 
and the fifth, Lewis William, is in the church and rector of 
Washington in Durham. 

Verses on Lord Denman' s retirement; written hy Sir Joseph Arnould}^ 
and produced by him when he was Poet Laureate of the Home 
Circuit Mess J April 2, 1850. 

" His life was noble ; and the elements 
So mixed in him that nature might stand up 
And say to all the world, * This was a man.' " Jvlitu Ccuar, 

Forgive your Laureate if he flings away 
His motley mask^ and dares be grave to-day, 
While to the memory of a great career 
He yields a homage, feeble but sincere. 

* The writer was winner of the Newdigate Prize Poem at Oxford, and 
author of Amould's Marine Insurance ; and is now a judge at Bombay. 



1837— THOMAS DENMAN. 203 

A noble race is ended ^ from tlie noise 
Of life's arena to the tranquil joys 
Of wise seclusion^ glorious witli a crown 
Of civic worth and dignified renown, 
DENMAI7 retires, and leaves a loffcy name 
To the sure keeping of historic fame. 
Long shall the name of Dekbcax live enshrined 
In the fond reverence of the English mind. 
Kich as he was in every manly grace 
That stamps the sons of England's hero-race ; 
True Saxon worth, cast in the stately mould 
Of Eoman grandeur ; stem and lion-souled ; 
Yet touched by kindlier impulses that move 
The hearts that else had but admired to love. 

England remembers how in manhood's flower, 
The bold assailant of all lawless power, 
His voice was lifted loudest in the van 
Of those who fought against the trade in man : 
England has not forgotten how the rush 
Of his fierce eloquence rolled forth to crush 
The courtly crew who, to appease the spleen 
Of a king's spite, would immolate a queen : 
Nor how, with front erect, he trod the path 
Of justice, heedless of a senate's wrath, 
And, firm for rights our fathers handed down, 
Withstood the House, as he had braved the Crown. 

Throned on the seat of judgment, he combined 
The purest purpose with the widest mind. 
His aim waa always justice ; his delight 
To render law conmiensurate with right. 
And from the breadth of that august domain 
Weed the rank growth of quibbling and chicane. 
No zealot votary of the cumbrous lore 
That " darkened counsel " in the days of yore j 
Not blindly worshipping, as things divine. 
The dust and cobwebs of the legal shrine ; 
But bent to make — so taught in Wisdom's school — 
Our laws progressive, like the realm they rule. 

His proud demeanour, and majestic grace 
Suited the height of his illustrious place. 
Blended extremes in him we could admire, 
Murray's fine ease, and Chatham's generous fire : 
Calmly sedate and equably polite, 
He felt no preference, and he showed no slight ; 



204 WILLIAM EBLE. ViCTOBiA. 

Not prone to talk, but diligent to hear; 
Prompt and yet patient; firm, but not austere ; 
Not quick to wrath, but when fit cause arose 
To stir his lion-nature from repose- 
Some deed of baseness, cruelty, or shame — 
Swifi shot the electric impulse through his frame ; 
The grave brow lowered ; the eje so calm and cold 
Flashed sudden fire ; and forth in thunder rolled 
The Yoice whose accents clothed with solenm awe 
The indignant doom of violated law. 

Denmak fi&rewell I forgive the attempt to twine 
A wreath so worthless for a brow like thine; 
But while all others hasten to salute 
Thy name with honour, how can we be mute ? 
We, who have known thee long and watched thee near, 
Dispensing justice in our narrow sphere ; 
IVho feel thy loss not more to be deplored 
On the grave bench than at the genial board — 
That festive scene, where thou didst love to sit, 
Promoting manly mirth and honest wit ; 
Where not a guest, howe'er unknown to fame, 
But heard thy deep voice pledge him by his name. 
While proudly through our hearts the feeling ran, 
^ Others revere the judge, we love the man." 

Once more farewell I may every blessing wait 
On thy retirement, to a distant date, 
May aJl the pleasures of a taste refined, 
And all the affluence of a well-stored mind. 
And all the affections of a loving breast. 
Solace thy age and sanctify thy rest. 



ERLE, WILLIAM. 
Just. C. P. 1844. Just. Q. R 1846. Ch. C. P. 1859. 

Sib William Eble^ who now occupies the honourable 
and responsible post of lord chief justice of the Common 
Pleas, is the lineal descendant of a very ancient family of 
that name, settled in Somersetshire from the time of our 
earliest kings^ several members of which have rendered 



1837— WILLIAM EELE. 205 

themselves eminent for their services to the country.* The 
judge was the son of the Rev. Christopher Erie, of Gilling- 
ham in Dorsetshire, and was bom at Fifehead-Magdalen in 
its neighbourhood in 1793. After going through Winchester 
School he entered New College, Oxford, where he took his 
degree in civil law in 1818. In November of the next year 
he was called to the bar by the society of the Middle 
Temple, and joined the Western circuit. He also purchased 
the situation of one of the counsel of the palace court, in 
which he acquired those habits of business, which are of 
slow attainment in the superior courts. His erudition as a 
lawyer, and his attainments as a scholar, soon ensured him 
such full employment on the circuit and in Westminster 
Hall that he was made king's counsel in 1834. 

The city of Oxford returned him as their representative in 
parliament in 1837 ; and though his support was^ given to 
the liberal party in the house, the conservative prime 
minister. Sir Robert Peel, regarding his merits only, did not 
hesitate to appoint him a judge of the Common Pleas on 
November 6, 1844, on the resignation of Mr. Justice 
Erskine. In the early part of the next year he was 
knighted. He sat in that court nearly two years, and in 
October 1846 was transferred to the Queen's Bench on the 
death of Sir John Williams. For little less than thirteen 
years he remained in this seat, when on the removal of Sir 
Alexander Cockbum to the head of the Queen's Bench, Sir 
WiUiam Erie was promoted on June 24, 1859, to take the 
vacant place of chief justice of the Common Pleas ; in 
which high position the urbanity of his manner adds force 
and effect to the unquestioned impartiality of his decisions. 

He married in 1834 the daughter of the Rev. David 
Williams, warden of New College and prebendary of Win- 
chester. 

> Introd. to Yonge's Diary (Camden Soc.) p. xxviii. 



206 THOMAS EBSKIKE. Victoria. 

ERSKINE, THOMAS. 

Jd8T. C. p. 1839. 

The Right Honourable Thomas Erskine is the sole survivor 
of the nine children of that celebrated advocate whose career 
is recorded in the eighth volume of this work, by his first 
wife the daughter of Daniel Moore, Esq. He was bom on 
March 12, 1788, at No. 10 Serjeants' Inn, Fleet Street, 
then the abode of Lord Erskine ; who a little later purchased, 
for the healthier residence of his children and his own occa- 
sional recreation, the pleasant house and garden on Hamp- 
stead Heath, in which in after years he took so much delight. 
At a grammar school in that parish Thomas and two of his 
brothers were instructed in the rudiments of learning to 
prepare them for Harrow, where under Dr. Drury the head 
master, and Dr. Butler his successor, and as private pupils 
of the Rev. Henry Drury, they completed their school 
education. They were fortunate in having for their con- 
temporaries several youths who afterwards acquired eminence 
in the world. Among their schoolfellows were three who 
became prime ministers. Sir Robert Peel, Lord Aberdeen, 
and Lord Palmerston ; besides Lord Byron, the Dukes of 
Devonshire and Dorset, the Earls of Plymouth and De la 
Warre, and, with others of less distinguished name, Theodore 
Hook, of jocular celebrity. 

Thomas Erskine's career at school was interrupted by his 
father's elevation to the office of lord high chancellor, whose 
inauguration he was summoned to attend, and who, upon 
the resignation by Mr. Surtees, a nephew of Lady Eldon's, 
of the secretaryship of presentations, gave his son that con- 
fidential office, the duties of which did not require any great 
experience. This appointment, though accepted by the young 
man with natural eagerness, might have been an unfortunate 
one for hitn, as it altogether disturbed the progress of his 



1837— THOMAS ERSKINE. 207 

studies^ and at too early a period of life introduced him into 
fashionable society and its dissipations. He was however 
entered at Trinity College, Cambridge, and in 1811 as a 
peer's son graduated as M. A., without residence or examina- 
tion, on the occasion of the Duke of Gloucester's inaugura- 
tion as chancellor of the university. In 1807 he became a 
member of Lincoln's Inn, commencing his study of the law 
as a pupil of the eminent special pleader, Joseph Chitty, Esq., 
and acquired such a mastery of the science that in 1810 he 
began practice in the same branch on his own account. 
After a successful pursuit of it for three years, Mr. Erskine 
was called to the bar in 1813. He at first joined the Home 
circuit, and afterwards availed himself of the privilege of 
changing it once, by attaching himself to the Western 
circuit, on which the retirement of Mr. Serjeant Lens and 
Mr. (afterwards Lord) Gifford and other leaders made a 
considerable opening for junior barristers. 

Taking no active part in political controversy, and more 
intent on the steady performance of his duties than in the 
pursuit of public distinction, he progressed slowly but 
surely, till he acquired such a position as to entitle him to 
claim the honour of a silk gown. He was appointed a 
king's counsel in 1827, and speedily acquired a place, if not 
among the first leaders of the .common law bar, yet one of 
considerable distinction on his own circuit. His speeches as 
a leading advocate were not so much characterised by 
fluency or copiousness of language, or by strong appeals to 
the feelings, as by great clearness of statement, and, accord- 
ing to the subject of the case, placing it on a high moral 
ground, or treating it with dry humour and epigrammatic 
force. He possessed a power which in those days, when 
verdicts were more often won or lost on technical grounds 
than now, was of infinite importance, — he saw perfectly the 
points of attack and defence ; and no one was more acute in 



208 THOMAS EBSEINE. Victoeia. 

detecting a latent non-suit in his opponent's pleadings. 
When Serjeant Wilde found on consultation that there 
was a weak point in his case, he would commonly ask, 
« Whom have we against us ? " and, if the answer was « Mr. 
Erskine," would shake his head and say, *^ Then we may be 
pretty sure this blot will be hit." 

When the new Court of Bankruptcy was established by 
Stat. 1 and 2 Will. IV., c. 56, which was introduced by 
Lord Brougham, and received the royal assent on October 
20, 1831, Mr. Erskine was selected as the chief of the four 
judges who were thereby appointed as a Court of Review. 
Though the junior of his three colleagues, he soon by the 
unfeigned simplicity of his manner and attractive cordiality 
overcame any jealousy that might have existed among them ; 
and by the clearness of his intellect, the soundness of his 
judgment, his great industry, impartiality, and care, amply 
justified the appointment. He presided over this court for 
eight years, assisting also in hearing appeals before the 
judicial committee of the Privy Council, as a member of 
which he had been sworn at his elevation. In the early 
period of the existence of that court he aided greatly in 
shaping its proceedings into that course, which has gradually 
raised it to so pre-eminent a rank among the judicial tribunals 
of the country. So effective were his services considered 
that on the death of Sir James Alan Park, Mr. Erskine 
was appointed his successor in the Common Pleas on January 
9, 1839 ; and for nearly four years he held both offices 
together; not resigning his chief justiceship of the Court of 
Review in Bankruptcy till November 1842. 

His career as one of the common law judges was short. 
During its continuance he accompanied Mr. Justice Cole- 
ridge on the Northern circuit in the spring of 1840. This 
was the culminating point of chartism. The north of 
England had been violently agitated by democratic orators 



1837— THOMAS ERSKINE. 209 

and a democratic press. Meetings had been numerously 
attended^ arms and military stores had been provided^ men 
were secretly trained, and preparations made for an obviously 
treasonable outbreak. On this circuit the delinquents were 
to be tried in the several counties where the offence was 
charged ; and it is to the credit of these two judges that the 
manner in which they disposed of these political trials con- 
tributed not a little to the settlement of disturbed minds, 
and to disabuse ill-informed persons of the prejudices they 
had entertained against the tribunals of the country. Such 
men saw that the scales of justice were held with an equsJ 
hand, that defences were patiently and favourably heard and 
weighed, and that due allowance was made for honest ignor- 
ance and delusion ; — for there were many among the chartists 
who believed that they were contending for their lawful 
rights against the usurpations of a dominant class, which 
they had been persuaded equally encroached on the rights 
of the queen as of their own. To these it was important, 
for the public good and their own, that they should be dealt 
with candidly and carefully, and that all fair opportunities 
should betaken of disabusing iheir minds by reasoning, and 
by considerate treatment throughout the whole proceeding. 
But at the same time the law was also found to be adminis- 
tered on the really guilty with a firm and fearless determina- 
tion. The effect was that the judges were not merely the 
objects of general admiration, but that their conduct was 
most highly applauded by those papers (especially the 
Northern Star, of which Feargus O'Connor was the editor) 
which were supposed to guide and to express the feelings of 
the lower orders. 

The main weight of the circuit in this respect was on Mr. 
Justice Ersldne, especially at York, where from the great 
number of prisoners, and a mistake in the time allotted to 
that city, the labour was peculiarly onerous. But he showed 

VOL. IX. p 



210 THOMAS EBSKINE. Victoria. 

no impatience^ he sat early and late^ and by his firmness^ 
candour^ and anxious desire to do justice^ made every one 
rejoice that the duty had devolved upon him. Though the 
effort exhausted his strength and seriously affected his health 
he had still to preside in the civil court at Liverpool^ with 
its formidable list of causes^ while his colleague had nearly 
three weeks more of chartist trials, which he conducted with 
the same tone and with the same effect as Mr. Justice Erskine. 
When at last they turned their backs on the North, they 
must, though wearied, have felt not dissatisfied with what 
they had accomplished. 

Too soon Mr. Justice Erskine's judicial career was wholly 
terminated. Amid the performance of his duties he was 
seized with a sudden chill which produced a severe attack of 
influenza and congestion of the lungs ; which resulted, on 
his too early attempt to resume his official work, in the 
rupture of a blood vessel and tubercular disease in the 
lungs, producing such a state of bodily incapacity as to 
render him totally unfit in the judgment of his physicians to 
discharge the functions of his office, requiring as they did 
the active employment of the voice. Under this compulsion 
he reluctantly retired from the bench in November 1844 ; 
and many were the testimonials he received from his dis- 
tinguished contemporaries of the value of those services 
they were about to lose. 

The retired judge was long in a dangerous state, and it 
was nearly ten years before the bleeding from the lungs 
entirely ceased. Since that time the greatest care and 
caution have been necessary to prevent a recurrence of the 
disease ; and the continuance of his life for twenty years 
after his first seizure is little less than a miracle. The time 
thus gained, though he has been incapacitated from employing 
it in the active duties of his profession, has been rendered 
useful to the world, by his taking every opportunity to 



1837— JOHN GURNET, 211 

benefit his fellow creatures, under feelings of deep gratitude 
to his Creator for the powers so to apply it. 

By his wife Henrietta Eliza, daughter of Henry Trail of 
Dairsie in the county of Fife, Esq., to whose tender care 
and devoted attention he is mainly, under the Almighty, 
indebted for the prolongation of his life, he has had a large 
family ; four of whom only survive, two daughters and two 
sons J one of whom is a member of the Chancery bar, and 
the other is the rector of Alderley in Cheshire. 

GURNET, JOHN. 

B. E. 1837. 
See under the Reign of William IV. 

The family of Baron Gurney may boast of a legal pedigree 
extending over more than a century and a half; inasmuch as 
his grandfather Thomas Gurney, flourishing from 1705 to 
1770, and his father, Joseph Gurney, were the recognised 
shorthand writers, not only employed confidentially by the 
government and in parliamentary committees, but engaged 
by authority in reporting the proceedings on all the important 
trials occurring during the period. Their system of steno- 
graphy has ever been highly esteemed, and is still universally 
practised. Joseph Gurney, who was resident at Walworth 
near London, married a daughter of William Brodie, Esq., of 
Mansfield, and had by her, with other children, two sons, 
John, the future baron, and William Brodie, who still pur- 
sues the useful occupation of his ancestors, with the same 
eminence in their art, and the ^ame respect and confidence 
which they enjoyed. 

John Gurney was bom in London on February 14, 1768. 
His education was commenced at St. Paul's School, and 
completed under the Rev. Mr. Smith at Bottesdale in Suffolk. 
Accompanying his father on his professional occupations in 

p 2 



212 JOHN GURNET. Victoria. 

the courts of law, he naturally imbibed a predilection for that 
profession ; not without hope of emulating the forensic elo- 
quence which he had frequent opportunities of admiring. 
For practice in the art he frequented those debating societies 
in which some of the greatest orators had made their first 
essays; adopting those political principles of freedom and 
reform which then made opposition popular. Having entered 
the Inner Temple he was called to the bar by that society in 
May 1793. He had not long to wait for employment. In 
the very first term, and the sittings after, he was retained as 
junior counsel to defend Daniel Isaac Eaton for two libels ; 
and in the following February, in consequence of the absence 
of his senior, he led the defence of the same individual for 
another libel. On that occasion he delivered an animated, 
humorous and effective speech which at once established 
him in his profession, and placed him on a height from which 
he never descended. 

The first consequence was that he was engaged as assistant 
counsel to Messrs. Ersldne and Gibbs in the memorable state 
trials of Hardy, Home Tooke, and Thelwall for high treason, 
in all of which he proved himself a most efficient auxiliary. 
These occurred before he had been two years at the bar, 
and in all of them verdicts of acquittal were pronounced for 
his clients. The same success attended his efforts as counsel 
for Crossfield and others arraigned in 1796 on what was 
nicknamed the Pop-gun plot; and for John Binns when 
indicted with O'Coigley, Arthur O'Connor and others for 
high treason in 1798 ; in both of which he most ably summed 
up the prisoners' defence.^ ' Early in his professional life he 
defended some smugglers, indicted for obstructing and as- 
saulting the revenue officers who were endeavouring to seize 
some supposed contraband goods; when the officers stated 

' State Trials, xxii. 767, 791, xxiii. 1031, xxiy. 238, &c. xxvL 8, xxvii. 1. 



1837— JOHN GURNET. 213 

that, though they were near enough to distinguish the letters 
B, G, and W, on the half-ankers slung over the horses, they 
were prevented from making a seizure, and therefore could 
not swear to the contents of the casks, but that they believed 
the letters meant brandy, gin, and wine. This evidence was 
ridiculed by Mr. Gumey, who instanced that W might as 
well stand for water, and B for beer. The attorney-general 
(Sir John Scott) in his reply wondered that the learned 
counsel did not suggest also that the G meant gruel. ^ 

At the London and Middlesex Sessions where he then 
practised he soon got a decided lead ; and gradually acquired 
such a footing in Westminster Hall and on the Home circuit, 
as warranted him in applying for a silk gown. But his 
supposed politics were against him ; and it was not till he 
had been three and twenty years at the bar that he obtained 
it, and then only in consequence of the extraordinary ability 
he displayed in prosecuting Lord Cochrane, Cochrane John- 
stone and the other parties implicated in propagating a false 
story of Bonaparte's defeat and death, for the purpose of 
speculating in the funds. Here, in opposition to a whole 
phalanx of the most able counsel at the bar, he, almost 
unaided, gained a complete triumph in the conviction of all 
the defendants. His promotion could no longer be delayed, 
and in 1816 he took rank as king's counsel. 

For sixteen years more he continued to labour as an 
advocate ; during the whole of which period he shared the 
lead of the King's Bench with Sir James Scarlett, Sir John 
Copley, and one or two eminent members of the bar ; and of 
the Home circuit he soon became the acknowledged head. It 
fell to his lot to lead the prosecution of two of the Cato 
Street conspirators in 1820, who, with the remainder of those 
tried, were convicted on the clearest evidence.^ 

> From the baron's own relation to the author. 
' State Trials, zxx. 711, 1341. 



214 JOHN GURNET. Victoria. 

He at length met his reward. After forty years of con- 
tinued success in the different arenas in which he practised, 
commencing almost at the first moment of his call; — ^through- 
out the whole of which he was conspicuous for the clearness 
of his statements of facts, and for the ingenuity with which 
he extracted them from witnesses; for the readiness with 
which he met the arguments of his opponents; for his 
respectful yet independent demeanour to the court, and 
his kindly and courteous manner to all ; and particularly for 
the acknowledged virtues of his private life ; — he was pro- 
moted to the bench on February 13, 1832, as one of the 
barons of the Exchequer on the resignation of Sir William 
Garrow ; when he was knighted. 

For thirteen years Sir John Gumey held this judicial 
position ; and then, from his advanced age and the failure of 
his health, he resigned his seat in January 1845, only to die 
on the 1st of the following March at his house in Lincoln's 
Inn Fields. Without taking a high rank as a deep-read and 
black-letter lawyer, he supported as a judge the reputation 
he had gained as an advocate, for discrimination, acuteness, 
and discretion ; and his former experience gave him a recog- 
nised superiority on criminal trials. He was brought up 
among Dissenters, but in his latter years he conformed to 
the Church of England. Whatever were his doctrinal 
opinions at different periods of his life, as a man he was 
universally respected, and his charities and practice during 
the whole of his lengthened existence were the best proofs 
of his having imbibed the spirit of the Master whom he ever 
professed to serve. 

By his wife, Maria, daughter of Dr. Hawes, who after an 
union of nearly fifty years survived him, he left several 
children ; one of whom, Russell Gumey, Esq., exhibits, as 
recorder of London, such high judicial powers and such deep 
legal knowledge that he has been frequently called upon by 



1837— HUGH HILL, 215 

the government to preside at the assizes in the place of 
judges temporarily incapacitated by illness.^ 

HILL, HUGH. 

JoST. Q. B. 1858. 

The infirmities produced by the oppressive labours of the 
law, have deprived the Bench at an early period of his life, 
of one of its most enlightened members. Sir Hugh Hill was 
compelled by the complete break up of his health to resign 
his seat in the Queen's Bench before he was sixty years old, 
an age at which many men have begun their judicial career. 
He was bom in 1802 at Craig in the county of Cork, the 
residence of his father James Hill, Esq., a private gentleman, 
whose family originally settled in Ireland in Cromwell's 
time. Educated in Dublin University, he graduated there 
as A.B. in 1821, and intending to pursue the profession of 
the law in Ireland, he then kept legal terms for two years in 
the Inns of Court there, and afterwards at the Middle Temple 
in London, where he became a pupil of Mr. Mascall an 
eminent special pleader. An accidental conversation with a 
fellow-pupil induced him to alter his determination of prac- 
tising in Ireland, and to commence that laborious branch of 
the profession in England ; and having started as a special 
pleader under the bar in 1827, for more than thirteen years 
he devoted himself with unremitting energy to this depart- 
ment. Though his progress was at first not very rapid, at 
last his success exceeded his most sanguine expectations. 
So extensive and oppressive was his business that he felt it 
necessary to be called to the bar in January 1841, when he 
joined the Northern circuit Both there and in Westminster 
Hall his reputation as a deeply-read jurist, and an ingenious 
and safe pleader, secured to him an immense quantity of the 

> Law Mag. May 1845; Gent. Mag. April 1845. 



216 JOHN JEBVIS. YiCTOBiA. 

heavy business, which required greater labour, but gave less 
profit, than the ordinary causes that occupy the courts. . 

From 1851, when he obtained a silk gown, till 1858, he 
was rewarded for his past labours by gaining a considerable 
lead ; and on May 29 of the latter year he was raised to the 
bench as an appropriate successor to Sir John Taylor Cole- 
ridge. But his labours had overtasked his strength; his 
constitution was completely undermined; and becoming in- 
capable of further exertion, he retired after less than four 
years' service in December 1861, to the regret of his col- 
leagues and the loss of the legal world. He still survives, 
an example of patience in his sufferings, and of humble gra- 
titude to a merciful God for the blessings he has received. 

He married in 1831 a daughter of Kichard Holden Webb, 
Esq., controller of the customs. 



JERVIS, JOHN. 

Ch. C. p. 1850. 

Sir John Jebvis, a member of the family of the Earls of 
St Vincent, was the younger son of Thomas Jervis, Esq., an 
eminent barrister, a king's counsel long leading the Oxford 
circuit, and for many years a judge on the Chester circuit. 
He was bom on January 12, 1802, and was educated at 
Westminster School and at Trinity College, Cambridge. 
Though destined for his father's profession, and being for 
that purpose entered of the Middle Temple, his love for a 
military life induced him to accept a commission in the cara- 
bineers. Soon, however, leaving the army he resumed his 
legal studies, and was called to the bar in Easter term, 1824. 
At first he traveUed the Oxford and then the Chester 
circuit, and in London he practised principally in the Exche- 
quer, On each arena he soon attained great reputation from 
his famiUanty with legal pnwtice, and from his quickness of 



1837— JOHN JEBVIS. 217 

apprehension and great discretion. In the Exchequer his 
opportunities were improved by holding the office of " Post- 
man;" and by reporting its decisions in conjunction^ first 
with Mr. Edward Younge, and then with Mr. (afterwards 
Justice) Crompton, from 1826 to 1832. He was the author 
also of some other useful practical works on criminal law, 
the law of coroners, &c. 

In the first Reform Parliament he was returned for the 
city of Chester, which he continued to represent till his ele- 
vation to the bench ; invariably supporting the liberal party, 
to whose principles he was zealously attached. 

His extensive practice soon entitled him to a silk gown, 
and in 1837 he received a patent of precedence. On July 4, 
1846, on the restoration of the Whig ministry he was made 
solicitor-general, which he held only three days, being pro- 
moted to the attorney-generalship on the 7th by the elevation 
of Sir Thomas Wilde to the post of chief-justice of the 
Common Pleas ; when he received the customary honour of 
knighthood. During the four years that he filled that office 
the manner in which he exercised its functions commanded 
universal approbation. His services as an adviser of the 
Crown, in aU the departments of the government, were so 
unremitting and laborious, that they laid the seeds of that 
disease which shortened his life; and his conduct on the 
various prosecutions in those seditious times, especially in 
the Chartist trials, was so discreet and admirable, that he 
well merited the promotion which was denied to him in 
February 1850, on the resignation of Lord Denman; when 
Lord Campbell was made chief-justice of the King's Bench. 
Sir Thomas Wilde being raised to the chancellorship in the 
following July, Sir John Jervis was promoted to his place as 
chief-justice of the Common Pleas on the 15th of that month. 

His judicial powers were of the highest order. His judg- 
ments were "models at once of legal learning, accurate 



218 HENRY SINGER KEATING. Victobia. 

reasoning, masculine sense, and almost faultless language ; " 
and the memory he displayed as weU in summing up the 
details of evidence, as in reviewing the cases quoted before 
him, was quite surprising. The disease under which he 
laboured sometimes made him impatient and irritable, but 
he was pronounced by the profession a judge of the highest 
rank; and in the relations of private life he was much 
esteemed for his amiable and cheerful disposition. 

He died on November 1, 1856, leaving a family of three 
sons and two daughters by his wife, Catherine the daughter 
of Alexander Mundell, Esq.' 

KEATING, HENRY SINGER. 
Just. C. P. 1859. 

Sir Henry Singer Keating is one of the present judges 
of the Common Pleas, and when he was placed in that seat 
was about fifty-five years of age, having been bom at Dublin 
in 1804. He is the third son of the late Lieutenant-General 
Sir Henry Sheehy Keating, K.C.B., who highly distinguished 
himself in the West Indies and other parts of the world, and 
of the daughter of James Singer, Esq., of Annadale in the 
county of Dublin. 

The profession of the law being chosen for him, he was 
admitted to the Inner Temple, and, having passed through 
the years of formal preparation, he was called to the bar on 
May 4, 1832. He then joined the Oxford circuit, and at- 
tended the Oxford and Gloucester sessions ; and after labour- 
ing as a junior for seventeen years he received a silk gown 
in 1849. 

In 1852 he entered parliament as member for Beading, 
which he continued to represent till he was elevated to the 
bench. Supporting the liberal party in the house, he was 

* Law Mag. and Review for Feb. 1857, p. 302. 



1837— RICHARD TORIN KINDEK8LEY. 219 

appointed solicitor-general in May 1857, and knighted, 
during the first ministry of Lord Palmerston; on whose 
defeat in the following February he retired ; but was replaced 
in June 1859 on that lord's return to power. Only half a 
year had elapsed before he was called upon to supply the 
vacancy in the Court of Common Pleas, occasioned by the 
death of Sir Kichard Crowder ; and in that court he has sat 
from December 14, 1859, till the present time. 

He married in 1843 a daughter of Major-General Evans 
oftheArtUlery. 

KINDERSLEY, RICHARD TORIN. 

V. C. 1861. 

The senior of the three present vice-chancellors is Sir 
Kichard Torin Kindersley, who was knighted on receiving 
that office in 1851. He was bom on October 5, 1792, at 
Madras, and is the eldest son of the late Nathaniel Edward 
Kindersley, Esq. of Sunning Hill, Berkshire, formerly in the 
civil service of the now defunct East India Company, and 
descended from a Lincolnshire family. Being brought to 
England for education he proceeded from Haileybury to 
Trinity College, Cambridge, and graduated B. A. in January 
1814, being fourth wrangler of his year and gaining his 
election as fellow of his college in October 1815. He took 
his degree of M.A. in July 1817, and on the 10th of the 
following February was called to the bar by the society of 
Lincoln's Inn. 

In January 1835 he was made one of the king's counsel, 
and occupied that position till 1848, having been advanced 
in the previous year to the honourable post of chancellor of 
the county palatine of Durham. During the whole of the 
thirty years that had elapsed since he assumed the barrister's 
gown he had practised in the court of Chancery, and both 



220 JOSEPH LITTLEDALE. ViCTOBTA. 

as junior and senior^ for juridical learning, patient industry, 
and solid judgment, had held so high a reputation, that he 
was early ranked among those who would sooner or later be 
called to a judicial office. 

The prizes in the equity courts are large in honour and 
emolument, but few in number, and the promotion is propor- 
tionally slow. Mr. Kindersley having never been in 
Parliament, and not having any political interest, had to 
wait till March 1848 for his advancement, and then only 
received a mastership in Chancery. In that position his 
judicial talent became so evident, that when Sir James 
Knight-Bruce was made lord justice of appeals in Chancery, 
Mr. Kindersley was immediately selected to fill his place as 
vice-chancellor. To that office he was appointed on October 
20, 1851 ; and the thirteen years of his judicial life have 
confirmed the character he has borne throughout his whole 
career. 

In 1824 he married the only daughter of the Kev. John 
Leigh Bennett of Thorpe in Surrey. 

LANGDALE, LORD. See H. Bickebsteth. 

LITTLEDALE, JOSEPH. 

Just. Q. B. 1837. 

See under the Reigns of George IV. and William lY. 

Descended from an ancient Cumberland family. Sir Joseph 
Littledale was the eldest son of Henry Littledale, Esq., of 
Eton House, Lancashire, and of Mary the daughter of Isaac 
Wilkinson, Esq., of Whitehaven. He was bom in 1767, 
and completed his education at St. John's College, Cam- 
bridge, in 1787, with the honourable distinction of senior 
wrangler and first Smith's prizeman. Entering Gray's Inn 
he practised for some years as a special pleader under the 



1837— JOSEPH LITTLEDALE. 221 

bar till 1798. Being tlien called^ from that time till 1824, 
a period of twenty-six years, his intimate knowledge of the 
law and patient industry insured the confidence of all who 
had the management of business, and gave him very exten- 
sive employment. 

In 1822 he was sent into Scotland with Mr. Hullock 
(afterwards elevated to the bench) for the purpose of 
arranging some government prosecutions. He never accepted 
a silk gown, nor took the common course of seeking ad- 
vancement by obtaining a seat in parliament, and was indeed 
so little of a party man and so entirely a lawyer, that when 
he was asked by a friend what his politics were, he is said to 
have answered ** Those of a special pleader." 

His professional merits alone pointed him out as the most 
worthy successor of Mr. Justice Best in the court of King's 
Bench. He received his appointment on April 30, 1824, 
with the usual honour of knighthood. With such colleagues 
as Chief Justice Abbott, Mr. Justice Bayley, and Mr. 
Justice Holroyd, the court presented for many years as 
perfect a phalanx of learned and efficient men as had ever 
been united in the administration of justice. For the 
remaining years of the reign of George IV., for the whole 
of that of William IV., and for nearly four years of the 
present reign, a period altogether of seventeen years, Sir 
Joseph Littledale performed the duties of his office to the 
admiration not only of lawyers but of the public in general. 
Lord Campbell, who practised under him during the whole 
time, calls him " one of the most acute, learned and simple- 
minded of men ;" and there was scarcely a barrister who did 
not regard him as a judicial father, and none could recall an 
unkind word of his utterance, or an impatient expression of 
his countenance. He was so devotedly attached to his pro- 
fession that he heartily enjoyed the discussion of the legal 
points before him. Once when the author of these pages 



222 SAMUEL MARTIN. Victoria. 

ventured to express a hope that he was not fatigued with the 
labours of a heavy day, he answered, ^' Oh no, not at all ; I 

like itr 

Having attained the age of 74, he felt that it was time 
for him to quit active life, and therefore at the end of Hilary 
term, 1841, he resigned his seat, to the regret of his 
colleagues, and also of an admiring bar ; who paid him the 
well-merited compliment of an afiSectionate address, expressive 
of their sorrow at parting, and of good wishes for his future 
welfare, orally delivered by the attorney-general (Sir John 
Campbell) on his taking leave of the court on February 6. 

Though he was immediately called to the Privy Council, 
he had very little opportunity of aiding in the hearings 
before its judicial committee ; for in less than a year and a 
half the infirmities that had warned him to retire made rapid 
way, and he died at his house in Bedford Square on June 
26, 1842. 

LYNDHURST, LORD. See J. S. Copley. 
MARTIN, SAMUEL. 

R E. 1850. 

The fairness with which judicial honours are allotted, and 
the absence of all national prejudice in their distribution, is 
exemplified in the fact that in each of the three courts is a 
judge who honestly prides himself on being a native of our 
sister isle. Sir Samuel Martin, one of the present barons of 
the Exchequer, is not only of Irish extraction, but was also 
bom and educated in Ireland, and by his learning and acquire- 
ments encourages the expectation that many another repre- 
sentative of his country will be welcomed on the bench. He 
is the second son of the late Samuel Martin, Esq., of Calmore 
in the county of Londonderry, and of Arabella his wife. 
Bom on September 23, 1801, he received his education at 



'A. 



1837— WILLIAM HENRY MAULE. 223 

Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated as Bachelor of 
Arts in 1821, and was admitted to the degree of D.C.L. at 
a later period of his life. 

Intended for the legal profession he at first in May 1821 
entered as a student at Gray's Inn, but in December 1826 
he transferred himself to the Middle Temple, by which 
Society he was called to the bar on January 29, 1830. In 
the interim he had practised for two years as a special 
pleader — a plan wisely adopted as an excellent introduction 
to the abstruser parts of the science. With the experience 
thus obtained he joined the Northern circuit with great 
advantage, and soon reaped the harvest which resulted from 
his previous reputation. In thirteen years he acquired such 
a lead on circuit and in London as to entitle him to a silk 
gown, which was given to him in 1843 ; and after seven 
years more, in which he enjoyed a large share of important 
business in the courts, he was promoted to the bench of the 
Exchequer in the place of Mr. Baron Kolfe (now Lord 
Cranworth) in November 1850, when he was knighted. For 
the three previous years he had represented Pontefract in 
parliament. 

In 1858 the baron married Frances the eldest daughter of 
Sir Frederick Pollock, afterwards lord chief baron, and has 
by her one child, a daughter. 

MAULE, WILLIAM HENRY. 
B. E. 1839. Just. C. P. 1839. 

Sir William Henry Maule was born on April 25, 1788, 
at Edmonton in Middlesex. His father was a medical prac- 
titioner there, and his mother was the daughter of one of the 
family of Eawson of Leeds. At his imcle's, the rector of 
Great Greenford near Ealing, he received his education till 
that gentleman's death ; soon after which, in October 1806, 



224 WILLIAM HENRY MAULE. ViCTOBlA. 

he entered Trinity College, Cambridge. There he pursued 
both his mathematical and classical studies with such avidity 
and success, that on taking his degree of B. A. in 1810 he 
came out as senior wrangler, and in October 1811 was 
elected Fellow. In the interval he took pupils, among 
whom was the late Sir Cresswell Cresswell. In the science 
of mathematics he was not only an extraordinary proficient, 
but an original inventor in some of its branches. His friend 
Mr. Babbage acknowledges the assistance he received from 
some of Mr. Maule's suggestions, and speaks of his wonderful 
powers and acuteness. So high was his reputation in this 
respect that he was offered the professorship of mathematics 
at Haileybury College ; but having chosen the law as his 
profession he declined it. 

Having entered Lincoln's Inn and studied special pleading 
under Mr. Brady, he was called to the bar in 1814, and joined 
the Oxford and the Welsh circuits. He had acquired the same 
mastery over law as he possessed over the other branches of 
learning : added to which he had fluency of language, fertility 
of illustration, and many of the powers by which barristers 
succeed, together with an infinite deal of humour and wit. 
Yet notwithstanding these advantages his advance in the 
profession was of slow growth, the principal cause of which 
was such a fear of appearing to conciliate clients that he drove 
them away by the brusqueness of his address. But his 
soundness as a lawyer and ingenuity as a disputant gradually 
made their way, and he by degrees obtained a considerable 
footing both in the provinces and the metropolis. In the 
city particularly from his great excellence in commercial law 
and on questions of marine insurance he had full and profitable 
employment. 

With some reluctance and misgiving he accepted a silk 
gown in Easter 1833, and soon after he was appointed counsel 
to the Bank of England. Distinguishing himself greatly in 



1837— WILLIAM HENRY MAULE. 225 

the conduct of the Carlow county election in 1835, he was 
invited to represent the borough of Carlow in 1837, and after 
a severe contest and subsequent petition succeeded. He 
took his place in the House of Commons on the liberal side ; 
and short as his career in parliament was, he gave promise of 
being a most successful debater. But in March 1839 he was 
raised to the Bench of the Exchequer, from which he was 
removed to the Common Pleas in the following November. 

During the sixteen years that he sat in that court he dis- 
played all the qualities of an excellent judge, his distinguishing 
characteristic being practical common sense and great inge- 
nuity in defeating mere technicalities. His judgments were 
remarkable for their striking observation, their pithy power, 
and happy illustrations. At Nisi Prius he was strictly 
impartial, patient and courteous, enlivening the court fre- 
quently with that peculiar irony which was natural to him. 
In trying prisoners the exercise of the latter faculty some- 
times bewildered the jury and led them by mistaking his 
intention to deliver a verdict just the reverse of what he 
recommended. His well-known speech at Warwick assizes 
in pronouncing a sentence of one day's imprisonment for 
bigamy committed by a poor man, whose first wife had de- 
serted him and their children and lived in adultery with 
another, pointing out the course which the law required him 
to adopt in order to obtain a divorce, at an expense of lOOOZ., 
is an admirable specimen. 

So frequent were his attacks of illness that he was obliged 
to resign. in June 1855, but was immediately placed on the 
Privy Council and added to its judicial committee. He was 
an effective member of it for the remainder of his life which 
terminated rather suddenly on January 16, 1858. 

In his social circle he was remarkable for pleasantry and 
humour, for kindliness of disposition, and for cordiality of 
friendship. Like all men of intellect he was an admirer of 

VOL. IX. Q 



226 JOHN MELLOB. ViCTOBZA. 

real geniuB, and his greatest ayersion was against pert pre- 
tence and ignorant conceit. Some of his caustic but playftd 
epigrams in Latin and French are directed against them. 
BKs powers of conversation were very great, and his memory 
retained all the facetiis he had ever read ; while the mots that 
he uttered were a never failing source of mirth in West- 
minster HalL He died immarriedt 

MELLOR, JOHN. 
Just. Q. B. 1861. 

Sir John Mellob was appointed a judge of the Queen's 
Bench in 1861, and was nearly fifty-two years of age when 
promoted. He was bom on January 1, 1809, at HoUinwood 
House in the borough of Oldham in the county of Lancaster, 
where his family had been settled for many generations. His 
father belonged to the old mercantile firm of Gee, Mellor, Ker- 
shaw, & Co., well known in that county above fifty years ago. 
Soon after the judge's birth the calls of business required his 
father to reside at Leicester, where he served the oflSoe of 
mayor and acted for many years as a magistrate ; and where 
he at first sent his son to the grammar school. From this 
he was removed to the care of the Rev. Charles Berry, a 
learned and accomplished Unitarian minister at Leicester, 
among whose pupils young Mellor had several companions 
who did credit to Mr. Berry's instructions by their future 
career in the world. The doctrines of his master did not 
shake his pupil's ortiiodoxy, while the controversy then 
carried on between the supporters of conflicting opinions, of 
which the advocate on tiie other side was tiie celebrated 
Kobert Hall, naturally led him to a deeper consideration of 
the distinctions of religious belief, and of the foundations on 
which tiie different sects are based, tiian is usual for one so 
young. This produced in his mind an inveterate repugnance 



1837— JOHN MELLOB. 227 

to the subscription to all dogmatic articles of religion ; his 
impressions on the subject being confirmed and intensified 
by the following remarks attributed to Mr. (now Lord) 
Brougham :— 

** I am not a more warm friend to education than a deter- 
mined enemy to all religious tests whatever; to all tests, 
oaths or declarations, or subscriptions, or by what other name 
they are known ; they are abhorrent to all religious liberty, 
and not less to sound policy; they are traps for the con- 
science ; they are snares for men's virtue ; they do not testify 
principles, but make hypocrites. They are unjust because 
they fall upon the good and honesty letting the knave and 
the time-server go free; they are impolitic, because they 
deprive the state of the services of its best, because most 
conscientious, subjects ; they are profane, unspeakably pro- 
fane, because they make a mockery of the most sacred things." 

With these impressions, though it was originally arranged 
that he should go to Lincoln College, Oxford, yet, as sub- 
scription to the Thirty-nine Articles was then required as a 
condition of admission, he felt himself compelled to forego 
the advantage to be derived from a university education. He 
accordingly continued his studies under Mr. Berry, and at 
the same time, being intended for the bar, obtained some 
instruction in the law of real property by entering the office 
of a conveyancing attorney in the town. He then became a 
student in the Inner Temple, and at the same time a pupil 
of the younger Mr. Chitty, who in eminence as a special 
pleader equalled his father. Here he remained for four years 
in companionship with several who have since distinguished 
themselves in Westminster Hall: during part of the time 
attending the lectures given at University College by that 
eminent jurist John Austin. He was called to the bar on 
June 7, 1833, and in the same year married Elizabeth, only 
daughter of the late William Moseley, Esq., of Peckham Eye. 

Q2 



228 JOHN M£LLOR. Victoria. 

Joining the Midland circuit he became a member of the 
Leicester borough and Warwick sessions; and acquired a 
considerable practice both in criminal and civil business. 
His readiness, if not his eloquence of address, his clear state- 
ment of facts and prompt application of the law to them, and 
particularly his skill in the examination of witnesses, soon 
established him in the courts and marked him for early pro- 
motion. In 1849 he succeeded Mr. Waddington in the office 
of recorder of Warwick, which, after holding it for three 
years, he resigned in 1852. In 1851 he had attained the 
rank of queen's counsel, and found no reason to regret the 
change, often injurious to many. In 1855 he received the 
appointment of recorder of Leicester, which he retained till 
he was elevated to the bench at Westminster. 

In the meantime, after one unsuccessful contest at Warwick 
in 1852, and another at Coventry in 1857, he was elected in 
the latter year member of parliament for Great Yarmouth, 
and sat for it till the dissolution in 1859 ; when he contested 
Nottingham with success. Throughout his senatorial career 
he was an unflinching advocate of the liberal opinions to 
which he had been all along attached, and a firm supporter 
of Lord Palmerston's administrations ; gaining the regard of 
both parties by his honourable bearing and his amiable and 
attractive manners. 

It is not surprising therefore that he received the congra- 
tulations and good wishes of all, when, on the retirement of 
Mr. Justice HiU, he was selected on December 3, 1861, to 
take his place as a judge of the Queen's Bench ; which he 
has now filled above two years with general approbation. 
He then received the honour of knighthood. 

He is the author of two most interesting lectures; one 
" The Christian Church before the Eeformation," delivered 
at Leicester in 1857 ; and the other " The Life and Times 
of John Selden," delivered at Nottingham in 1859; both 



1837— JAMES ALAN PARK. 229 

showing great Kberality of sentiment^ and that disregard of 
party and of class, which, while it marks the impartidity of 
the man, is the best promise of excellence in the judge. 



PARK, JAMES ALAN. 

Just. C. P. 1837. 

See under the Reigns of George III. George IV. and William IV. 

James Alan Park was the son of James Park, Esq., a 
respectable surgeon in Edinburgh, and was born in that city 
on April 6, 1763. When very young he came to England, 
and was admitted into the society of the Middle Temple, by 
which he was called to the bar in June 1784. He was for- 
tunate enough to gain the friendship and patronage of his 
noble countryman Lord Mansfield, under whose encourage- 
ment he published in 1787 a work on the Law of Marine 
Insurances, comprehending the decisions and dicta of the 
chief justice, who had been almost the creator of the system. 
This work was found to be so useful to mercantile and legal 
men, that it passed through many editions, with improve- 
ments by its author, and at once brought him into profes- 
sional notice. Joining the Northern circuit, he was successful 
in obtaining a considerable practice, which before long in- 
creased till he became one of the leaders of that bar. In 
Westminster Hall also he acquired much business, as well 
from that numerous body engaged in maritime affairs and 
insurance cases, as from other clients who were observant of 
the extreme interest he took in his causes, and the clearness 
and earnest simplicity of his advocacy. He gleaned much 
learning and experience from his intimacy with Lord Mans- 
field, to whom, after his lordship's retirement, he was in. the 
habit of taking an account of the daily proceedings in court, 
and profiting by the observations made by the legal Nestor 
upon the different points decided. 



230 JAMES ALAN PABK. Victoria. 

In 1791, before the death of Lord Mansfield, Mr. Park 
was appointed vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster ; 
and in 1795 recorder of Preston. In 1799 he received a 
silk gown as king's counsel; and in 1802 he was elected 
recorder of Durham. On the retirement from the circuit of 
Mr. Law (afterwards Lord EUenborough) when he became 
attorney-general, Mr. Park succeeded to the undisputed 
lead, which he retained for more than a dozen years; 
dividing that in London with Sir Vicary Gibbs and Sir 
William Garrow ; and in 1811 he was made attorney -general 
of Lancaster. In most of the great cases of the time his 
name appears. In 1805 he was engaged in the defence of 
Judge Johnson, and of Henry Delahay Symonds the pub- 
lisher of the Anti-Jacobin Review, both for libels. In 
1809 and 1813 he was employed by the government in the 
prosecution of several cases in the North, the principal of 
which were those against the ringleaders of the Luddite 
riots. 

A sincere and zealous churchman, he was, by the religious 
classes of the community, looked up to with great esteem. 
Among his intimates was William Stevens the modest and 
benevolent treasurer of Queen Anne's bounty ; with whom 
he formed a committee in support of the Scotch episcopal 
clergy, and succeeded in obtaining the repeal of the penal 
statutes then in force against them. He was one of the 
original members of " Nobody's Club," so called from the 
nom de plume of Mr. Stevens, in whose honour it was 
founded ; and which, lasting till the present day, has num- 
bered among its members some of the most eminent men in 
the church and in science, law, and literature. At Mr. 
Stevens' death Mr. Park published a memoir of him, which 
has been lately reprinted. He was also the author in 1804 
of a Layman's " Earnest Exhortation to a frequent reception 
of the Lord's Supper." 



1887— JAMES PABKE. 231 

Without any pretensions to eloquence, his advocacy was 
effective from the extreme anxiety he displayed for his 
client ; and he gaiaed his verdicts by the apparent confidence 
and sincerity with which he impressed the jury with the 
injustice of withholding them, as much as by the merits of 
the causes themselves. 

After thirty years' successful practice at the bar he suc- 
ceeded Sir Alan Chambers as a judge of the Common Pleas 
on January 22, 1816, and was knighted. He sat in that 
court till his death on December 8, 1838, a period of nearly 
twenty-three years, during which he served under four 
sovereigns. With no particular eminence as a lawyer, he 
proved himself by Ms good sense and strict impartiality, as 
well as by the respectability of his character, a most useful 
administrator of justice ; the only drawback from the general 
respect which he commanded was a certain irritability about 
trifles, which too frequently excited the jocularity of the 
bar. 

PARKE, JAMES, afterwards Lord Wensletdalb. 

B. E. 1837. 
See under the Reigns of George IV. and William IV. 

The elevation of Sir James Parke to the peerage on his 
retirement from the court of Exchequer gave rise to the 
important constitutional question whether the patent which 
created him Baron Wensleydale of Wensleydale for the 
** term of his natural life " entitled him to sit and vote in 
parliament. After a long and able discussion the committee 
of privileges decided it in the negative ; and a new patent 
was accordingly issued in the usual form with the title of 
Baron Wensleydale of Walton. 

He is the yoimgest son of Thomas Parke, Esq., a merchant 
at Liverpool, residing at Highfield, near that town, by the 
daughter of William Preston, Esq. ; and was bom there in 



232 JAMES PARKE. ViCTOBiA. 

1782. He commenced his education at the Free Grammar 
School at Macclesfield in 1792, and finished it at Trinity 
College, Cambridge; where he attained great distinction. 
Elected university scholar in his first term 1799, and a 
scholar of Trinity College in 1800, he took his degree of 
B.A. in 1803, with the honourable position of fifth wrangler 
and senior chancellor's medallist He gained a fellowship 
in his college in the following year, and proceeded M.A. in 
1806. It was not till seven years after the latter date that 
he was called to the bar by the Society of the Inner 
Temple (to which he had removed from Lincoln's Inn) in 
Easter term 1813, having practised previously for some 
years as a special pleader, and shown that proficiency in 
legal science which led to his rapid success as an advocate, 
both on the Northern circuit and in Westminster Hall. 
Within four years he was enabled to resign his fellowship, 
on his marriage in 1819 with Cecilia, daughter of Samuel 
F. Barlow, Esq., of Middlethorpe in Yorkshire. 

Only seven years after his call to the bar he was selected 
to assist the crown officers in conducting the memorable case 
against Queen Caroline in the House of Lords ; and so high 
was his reputation for legal knowledge that, without ever 
having had a silk gown, and without the suspicion of any 
parliamentary or political interest, he was chosen on Novem- 
ber 28, 1828, to supply the place of that excellent judge 
Sir George Holroyd, and thus to continue the acknowledged 
efficiency of the court of King's Bench. On that occasion 
he was as usual knighted. Here he remained for nearly six 
years, till on April 29, 1834, he and Mr. Justice Alderson, 
to strengthen the staff of the Exchequer bench, were 
removed into that court. For the additional two and twenty 
years that he remained on the bench he administered justice 
there and on the circuits with that weight and experience, 
and with that temper and consideration, which commanded 



1837— JAMES PARKER. 233 

the respect of the bar, and secured the acquiescence of 
litigants. He was a zealous labourer for the removal of all 
useless formalities in legal proceeding, and one of the principal 
amendment acts passed in the reign of William IV. was his 
work. 

In 1833 he was called to the Privy Council, and has ever 
since been a most eflScient member of its judicial committee ; 
and in 1835 he received the degree of LL.D. at his university. 
After twenty-eight years of judicial service, during the 
whole of which he never flagged in his duties, his age (74) 
warned him to retire. He resigned his seat at the end of 
December 1855, with the pension to which he was entitled 
thirteen years before ; but the government were so conscious 
of his judicial powers, and so desirous to secure his assistance 
in the hearing of appeals in the House of Lords, that he 
was raised to a peerage for life on the 10th of the following 
January as Lord Wensleydale. The subsequent change in 
his patent has been already stated; it took place for the 
reason before given, and without any desire on his part, as 
he has no male heir to succeed to the title, his only surviving 
child being a daughter. 

He still survives at the age of eighty-two, with his 
intellects unimpaired, and still gives his valuable assistance 
in the last court of appeal. 

»• 

PARKER, JAMES. 

V. C. 1851. 

The ten short months during which Sir James Parker held 
the office of vice-chancellor afforded such evidence of 
intellectual power, promising a most brilliant judicial career, 
that his sudden death was almost as great a grief to the 
legal world, as it must necessarily have been to his family 
and private friends. He was only in his forty-ninth year 



234 JAM£S PABKER. Victobta. 

when he died^ having been bom in Glasgow in 1803. He 
was the son of Charles Steuart Parker^ Esq., of Blockaim 
near that city ; in the grammar school and college of which 
he received his first instructions. He then proceeded to 
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as B.A. 
in 1825, gaining the seventh wrangler's place, and as M.A. 
in 1829. On February 6 in the same year he was called 
to the bar by the Society of Lincoln's Inn, and practising in 
the equity courts his merits were soon acknowledged. By 
his indefatigable industry and clearness of intellect the 
difficulties of the science were quickly mastered, and in 
advocating the cases entrusted to his care, there was an 
exhibition of learning and shrewdness that secured to him 
numerous retainers. 

He was made queen's counsel in July 1844, and his 
reputation was so high that he was named on the Chancery 
commission, in the investigations of which he took a very 
prominent part. At the election in 1847 he stood for 
Leicester on the conservative side, but was defeated after 
a close contest. Notwithstanding his avowed political prin- 
ciples, his character as a lawyer was so well established, and 
the necessity of a reform in Chancery, of which he was a 
zealous advocate, was so urgent, that when Lord Cranworth 
was appointed one of the first lords justices of appeal, the 
Whig ministry selected him, although their opponent, to fill 
the vacant office of vice-chancellor on October 20,' 1851 ; 
when he was knighted. 

Short a^ was his presidency of his court, it waa long 
enough to prove him a most excellent judge. Patient in 
hearing, careful in deciding, courteous to all, his judgments 
manifested his full comprehension of the facts, and satisfied 
the understanding by the acute and sagacious application of 
the law to them. He survived the last sittings before his 
first long vacation only a few days, dying of an attack of 



1887— JOHN PATTESONi 235 

angina pectoris on August 13, 1852, at Rothley Temple 
in Leicestershire, where he was buried. 

In 1829 he married Mary daughter of Thomas Babington, 
Esq., of Rothley Temple, M.P. for Leicester; by whom he 
left several children. 

PATTESON, JOHN. 

Just. K. B. 1837. 

See under the Reign of William IV. 

This universally-popular and deeply-venerated judge, whose 
love for his profession commenced at the outset of his career 
and terminated only with his life, was the son of the Rev. 

_ \ 

Henry Patteson of Drinkstone in Suffolk, by Sophia the 
daughter of Richard Ayton Lee, Esq., a banker in London. 
He was bom on February 11, 1790, at Norwich, of which 
city his uncle John Patteson, Esq., was the representative 
in parliament for some years. 

Educated at Eton he was elected on the foundation, and 
succeeded to King's College, Cambridge, in 1809 as a scholar, 
where in 1812 he became a fellow ; having in the meantime 
been the first to win the Davies' university scholarship. 

Entering the Middle Temple, he placed himself successively 
under the instructions of two among the most eminent special 
pleaders of the day, Mr. Godfrey Sykes and Mr. (afterwards 
Justice) Littledale ; and, having gained by their guidance 
sufficient knowledge of the then abstruse science, commenced 
the practice of it on his own account. Here great success 
attended him, and soon his reputation was so well established 
that many pupils resorted to his chambers to share in the 
benefit of his teaching. 

When in 1821 he was called to the bar and joined the 
Northern circuit, his name as an accurate and subtle pleader 
soon secured him a prominent place among his compeers. In 



236 JOHN PATTESON. Victoria. 

an extremely short time he was engaged in many important 
cases ; and Mr. Littledale, who then acted as counsel for the 
treasury, showed his confidence in him by securing his assis- 
tance in the business of the crown. Many of the arguments 
which he delivered are to be found in the Reports, abounding 
in learned and logical deductions, and expressed in simple 
and peculiarly clear language. At the close of one of them, 
" Bennell v. the Bishop of Lincoln," ^ Mr. Justice Bayley is 
said to have thrown down to him from the bench, a note with 
these words, " Dear P. Lord Tenterden, C.J. An admir- 
able argument ; shows him fit to be an early judge." 

The implied prophecy was speedily accomplished. When 
parliament had determined to act upon the Eeport of the 
Common Law Commissioners (of whom Mr. Patteson was 
one), and three new judges were to be appointed. Lord 
Chancellor Lyndhurst selected Mr. Patteson as the most 
eligible person to take the additional place in the King's 
Bench. He received his promotion on November 12, 1830 ; 
without a murmur among his colleagues, though no other 
instance ever occurred of one who after only nine years' 
practice at the bar had been raised to the bench ; so unre- 
servedly were his merits acknowledged. He of course then 
received the honour of knighthood. 

The choice proved a most successful one. For rather 
more than one and twenty years, under three chiefs. Lord 
Tenterden, Lord Denman, and Lord Campbell, he contri- 
buted greatly, by his high judicial faculty, to the efficiency 
of the court, as was frequently and publicly acknowledged. 
No one was more soundly versed in the principles of the 
Common Law, or more firm in his enunciation of them ; no 
one was more lucid in his reasonings, or less liable to be 
misled by the sophistries of counsel; and, what is of the 

■ 7 Barnewell and Cresswell, 113 ; Mirehouse v. Bennell, 8 Bingham, ^490, 
is the same case. 



1837— JOHN PATTESON. 237 

greatest Importance, no one was more courteous and kind to 
all applicants, whether in court or in chambers. As a cri- 
minal judge he was inflexibly just, and, where he could be, 
most merciful ; and in every branch of his duties he estab- 
lished a character inspiring so much respect and confidence, 
that there have been few judges whose retirement was more 
regretted. 

But he was visited with an infirmity, that of deafness, 
which, though at first moderated by the use of ingenious 
instruments, at last increased to such an extent that he felt 
that he could not adequately fulfil the duties which devolved 
upon him ; and, most unwillingly, he tendered his resignation. 
The scene on his last appearance in court, February 9, 1852, 
was a most affecting one: and no better evidence can be 
produced of the bar's appreciation of him than is afforded by 
the following passages in the address of the present chief- 
justice of that court. Sir Alexander Cockbum, then attorney- 
general : — 

" As we are now about to lose you, it may not be entirely 
unbecoming in me to offer, nor wholly unwelcome to you to 
receive, the assurance of the universal sense of the whole 
profession, that the high and sacred duties of the judicial 
oflSce were never more honestly or ably discharged than by 
you during your whole judicial life. Though we lose you, 
your memory will yet remain to us, assuming its proper 
position among those revered names which dignify this place 
and this hall, and will be cherished by us not more for that 
vast and varied learning by which all have profited and 
which all have admired, than for that untiring love of justice 
and truth, and that hatred of oppression and wrong, that 
unflinching integrity of purpose, that simplicity and single- 
ness of heart, and that benevolent kindness of nature, which 
leave us in doubt whether we should more revere the judge 
or love the man. You will carry into your retirement the 



238 JOHN PATTESON. Victoria. 

respect and yeneration^ and the enduring attachment, of 
every member of the profession. We rejoice to hope, that 
though the sense of one infirmity, and the apprehension lest 
that should interfere with the perfect discharge of your duty, 
have made you withdraw from your office in the vigour of 
your powers, you will long remain in unimpaired health, and 
long enjoy all the pleasures of life." 

He was immediately sworn of the Privy Council, and for 
five years assisted in the adjudication of the difficult cases 
that come before its judicial committee. His failing health 
then compelled him to desist from all mental labour ; and for 
the short remainder of his life he devoted himself to the 
enjoyments of domestic society and to the friendly assistance 
of his neighbours. He expired on June 28, 1861, at Feniton 
Court near Honiton, an estate he had purchased at a short 
distance from the residence of his brother-in-law and colleague 
Sir John Taylor Coleridge, with whom he kept up the most 
affectionate intimacy, and who has feelingly recorded his 
worth on the brass his admirers put up to his memory in 
Eton College Chapel in the following elegant inscription : — 

Joannes Patteson 

Eqa. Bacc a Sec: Dom: Beg: Cone: 

Natus XI. Feb. a.d. MDCCXC. 

Denatus XXVIH Jun. a.d. MDCCCLXI. 



Collegii hujusce Scbolaris, 

CoUegii Hegalis apud Cantabrigienses Socius. 

Spei egregiae, profectus uberrimi. 

Juris-consultus apprim^ doctus ; 

Judex acutus et patiens^ promptus et laboriosus. 

Morum simplicitate, sanctitate vitea 

Insignis ; 

Quern boni omnes preesentem 

Veneratione et amore colebant, 

Sublatum desiderio prosequuntur. 

He was twice married; first to Elizabeth daughter of 
George Lee, Esq., of Dickleborough, Norfolk ; and secondly 




1837— CHABLES CHEI8TOPHEE PEPY8. 239 

to Frances Duke, sister of Mr. Justice Coleridge, whom he 
survived. One of his two sons is the missionary bishop to 
the Western Isles of the South Pacific Ocean, and the other 
a revising barrister on the Northern circuit. 



PEPYS, CHARLES CHRISTOPHER, Earl of Cottenham. 

LoBD Chanc. 1837, 1846. 
See under the Beign of William IV. 

Cottenham in Cambridgeshire5 the place from which this 
distinguished chancellor took his title^ had been the residence 
of the family of Pepys ever since the beginning of the six- 
teenth century. Richard Pepys^ one of his progenitors, has 
ahready been recorded in this work as a baron of the English 
Exchequer and a chief justice of the Upper Bench in Ire- 
land during the Commonwealth.^ The grandson of Richard 
was a banker in London, and father of two sons who were 
eminent in their respective professions and were both honoured 
with baronetcies. One of these was Sir Lucas Pepys, physi- 
cian to George III., who received his title in 1784, and 
whose son assumed the name of Leslie ; and the other was 
Sir William Weller Pepys, who held the office of master in 
Chancery from 1775 till 1807, and obtained his dignity in 
1801. The Lord Chancellor was second son of the latter by 
his wife, Elizabeth, eldest daughter of the Right Honourable 
William Dowdeswell, chancellor of the Exchequer in 1765. 
Both the baronetcies have now centred in him by the decease 
of his brother in 1845, and his cousin in 1849, and are now 
merged in the earldom he has since attained. Sir William 
Weller Pepys had a third son, Henry, who held the bishopric 
of Worcester from 1841 to 1861. 

* Antd, YoL iv. 467. The pleasant diarist, Samuel Pepys, is there erro- 
neously stated to have been the fourth son of this Richard. He was a 
descendant of a yonnger branch of the family. 



240 CHARLES CHRISTOPHER PEPYS. Victoria. 

Charles Christopher Pepys was born on April 29, 1781. 
He was educated at Harrow, from whence he proceeded to 
Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his degree of 
Bachelor of Laws in 1803. Having previously entered 
himself as a member of Lincoln's Inn in January 1801, he 
availed himself of the instructions of the two most eminent 
men in common law and equity, Mr. Tidd and Sir Samuel 
Romilly, till he was called to the bar in November 1804. 
He attached himself to the Court of Chancery, but though 
esteemed a skilful draftsman his progress was not rapid. He 
did not obtain a silk gown till 1826 ; but afterwards he had 
no reason to complain of his progress. 

Soon after the accession of William IV. he was appointed, 
in November 1830, solicitor-general to the queen; and in 
July 1831, he entered parliament, first as the representative 
of Earl Fitzwilliam's borough of Malton, and afterwards of 
Higham Ferrers. In the senate he supported the Whig 
party, to which he was always attached ; and was raised by 
that party in February 1834 to the post of solicitor-general 
to the king ; on which occasion he was knighted. 

He had filled that office for little more than six months, 
when by the death of Sir John Leach the mastership of the 
Rolls became vacant, to fill which, passing over the attorney- 
general Campbell, Sir Christopher was appointed on Sep- 
tember 29, 1834. In the interval between that month and 
April 1835 there had been two changes of ministry ; and on 
the second change, when the liberal party resumed power, 
the Great Seal was put into commission at the head of which 
the new master of the Rolls was placed. This was dissolved 
at the end of nine months, when, on January 16, 1836, 
the Seal was delivered to Sir Christopher alone as lord 
chancellor, and four days afterwards he was created Baron 
Cottenham. 

For nearly the six following years he performed the func- 



1837— CHARLES CHRISTOPHER PEPYS. 241 

tions of his high office in a most satisfactory manner ; but on 
September 3, 1841, on the restoration of the conservative 
party, he retired, and resigned the Seal to Lord Lyndhurst. 
He remained out of office while that ministry retained power ; 
but assisted in hearing appeals to the House of Lords and 
the Privy Council. When the conservatives were in their 
turn obliged to quit the government, he resumed his seat on 
the woolsack, on July 4, 1846 ; being the only whig chan- 
cellor who, during the present century, has been restored to 
his place. In the reign of George III. Lord Erskine was 
dead before his friends were readmitted into the government. 
Lord Brougham, though the ministry that appointed him 
was only five months out of office before its restoration, was 
not again entrusted with the SeaL Lord Truro, after a 
cessation of power for ten months, was passed over for Lord 
Cranworth ; and Lord Cranworth's claims, when the whigs 
were replaced after sixteen months in opposition, were set 
aside in favour of the present chancellor. Lord Westbury. 

Towards the end of four years Lord Cottenham's health 
began to succumb under the labours of his position, and his 
sufferings at last interfered much with his duties. In the 
prospect of his retirement her majesty, or rather perhaps the 
party to which he was attached, showed the value placed on 
his services, by raising him two steps in the peerage. He 
was on June 1, 1850, created Viscount Crowhurst and Earl 
of Cottenham; and on the 19th of the same month, under 
the pressure of severe illness, he resigned the Seal, having 
held it as chancellor nearly ten years. With the hope of 
restoring his health he travelled on the continent, but, as in 
the case of Lord Langdale, his relaxation came too late. 
Within nine months he died at Pietra Santa in the duchy of 
Lucca on April 19, 1851. 

Lord Cottenham, though he attained no great eminence 
as an advocate, proved himself a most excellent judge. In 

VOL. IX. R 



242 CHARLES CHBISTOPHEB PEPTS. Victoria. 

the former capacity he was a sound and practical adviser, 
and an accurate and logical reasoner, but without that ready 
eloquence^ which is often the principal attraction. But these 
very qualities rendered his decisions in the latter character of 
the greater value, enabling him at once to see the real merits 
of the point in dispute, and to discard from his consideration 
useless technicalities, and irrelevant arguments. As a sena- 
tor, both in and out of office, he supported and sometimes 
originated several amendments of the law ; and in his own 
court he introduced some regulations for the simplification 
and more satisfactory conduct of its proceedings. It speaks 
highly in his favour that his judicial merits were not praised 
by his own friends only, but fully acknowledged by the 
opposite party also ; and even the ** Times," at that time 
the organ of the conservatives, on his first retirement from 
office in 1841, devoted a long article to his eulogy. He was 
peculiarly cold and sedate in his manner, and extremely 
tenacious of his opinions; and though he was a staunch 
adherent to the whig party, he was not considered of any 
use to it as a politician. 

In 1821 Lord Cottenham married Caroline, daughter of 
William Wingfield, Esq., the master in Chancery, by Lady 
Charlotte Maria, daughter of the first Earl of Digby. His 
Countess still survives him, together with twelve children, 
the fruit of their marriage. 



1837— GILL£BY PIGOTT. 243 



PIGOTT, GILLERY. 

B. £. 1863. 

This gentleman is the last appointed baron of the Exche- 
quer. His family is traced from a knight who accompanied 
William the Conqueror on his invasion of England^ and 
its members have held possessions in various counties ever 
since. The Baron is the fourth son of Paynton Pigott, Esq.^ 
of Archer Lodge in Hampshire, and of Banbury in Oxford- 
shire (who assumed in 1836 the additional names of Stainsby 
Conant ^), and of Maria Lucy, daughter of Richard Drosse 
Gough, Esq., of Loudem in the latter county. He was bom 
at Oxford in 1813, his Christian name being given him from 
his great grandmother, the daughter of Colonel Gillery; 
and he received his education at a private school at Putney. 
A member of the Middle Temple, he was called to the bar 
by that society in May 1839; and joining the Oxford cir- 
cuit and attending the sessions of that and the neighbouring 
county of Gloucester he gained a considerable practice. In 
a few years he was elected recorder of Hereford. His next 
promotion was to the degree of the coif in 1856, to which 
was added in the following year a patent of precedence. In 
October 1860 he was elected representative for Reading, the 
vacancy being occasioned by his eldest brother Francis's 
appointment as lieutenant-governor of the Isle of Man. In 
parliament Mr. Pigott professed liberal opinions, and sup- 
ported Lord Palmerston's administration. During the short 
period he remained a member he interested himself, but 
without effect, in the laws of the Island of Jersey, the 

* An adyertisement in the ** Times*' of July 2, 1864, notifies that the name of 
Carleton, in lien of the names of Stainsby Conant, has been assumed by the 
judge's nephew, in contemplation of his marriage with the eldest daughter of 
Guy Carleton, Baron Dorchester. 

B 2 



244 THOMAS JOSHUA PLATT. Victobia. 

anomalies of which he was desirous to reform. But his 
senatorial career was soon interrupted by his elevation to 
the bench. On Sir James Wilde becoming chief judge 
of the Court of Probate, Mr. Serjeant Pigott was nominated 
a baron of the Exchequer in his place, and was sworn in on 
October 3, 1863 ; receiving the honour of knighthood on the 
occasion. 

He married in 1836 Frances, only daughter of Thomas 
Duke, Esq., of Ashday Hall, near Halifax. 



PLATT, THOMAS JOSHUA. 

B. E. 1845. 

This baron of the Exchequer was the son of Thomas 
Piatt, Esq., an eminent solicitor in London, who lived to be 
the father of the profession with undiminished respect till 
the age of eighty-two. He held the office of principal clerk 
to three chief justices. Lords Mansfield, Kenyon, and EUen- 
borough, during a period of thirty years, and there are no 
doubt some survivors who recollect with gratitude the 
courtesy and kind assistance they experienced from him in 
the discharge of his troublesome employment. His son, 
Thomas Joshua, was bom about 1790, and was firom his 
birth destined for the bar. 

He was sent first to Harrow and then to Trinity College, 
Cambridge, where he took his degrees of B.A. in 1810, with 
honours, and of M.A. in 1814. He had in the meantime 
been admitted to the Inner Temple, and in 1816 was called 
to the bar by that society. A story is told of him as a young 
man, by a correspondent in " Notes and Queries," (3rd 
Series, III. 25), that being left for dead after a serious ill- 
ness, some young friends went to take a farewell look at 
him, when one of them having said, ^^ Ah I we shall never 



1837— FREDERICK POLLOCK. 245 

again drink a glass of wine with poor Piatt," the supposed 
dead man surprised them by exclaiming, " But you will 
though, and a good many too, I hope." All the friends ran 
away in a fright, except one, who staid to watch his resusci- 
tation. 

Joining the Home circuit he gradually was entrusted 
with briefs, and by his ready address and confident bearing 
eventually acquired a considerable practice. In January 
1835 he received a silk gown, and became in the end a 
favourite leader of his circuit. Before a common jury he 
was a formidable adversary to his opponent, but before a 
special jury he was not so successful. On the resignation of 
Mr. Baron Gumey in January 1845, he was raised to the 
bench of the Exchequer, and sat there more than eleven 
years ; when in consequence of the failure of his health he 
retired in November 1856. 

As an advocate he was remarkable for the energy of his 
manner and the simplicity of his language ; and as a judge, 
though not deeply read, his good sense led him to sound con- 
clusions ; while his blunt courtesy and amiable disposition 
made him a favourite with the bar. 

He died on February 10, 1862, at his house in Portland 
Place, in the seventy-third year of his age. 



POLLOCK FREDERICK. 

Ch. B. E. 1844. 

In Sir Frederick Pollock, the present lord chief baron of the 
Exchequer, is presented a veteran judge of whom it may be 
justly said (without trenching on the promised avoidance of 
judicial criticism on the existing occupants of the bench) that 
he preserves, though beyond his eightieth year, all his pris- 
tine vigour of intellect and activity of mind, still pursuing 



246 FBEDEBICK POLLOCK. Victobia. 

the studies bj which he gained eminence in his youths and 
performing the onerous and responsible duties of his high 
position with as much energy as the youngest of his col- 
leagues. 

He was the third son of Mr. David Pollock of Piccadilly, 
the highly respected saddler to King George III., and of 
Sarah, daughter of Richard Parsons, Esq., comptroller of a 
department in the customs. The j&mily was originally 
settled in the north, and his father was an eye-witness of 
the Pretender Charles Edward and his army triumphantly 
crossing the Tweed in November 1 745 ; within a few months 
to retrace their steps and to be defeated and almost annihi- 
lated at CuUoden. Good fortune attended him both in his 
business and his fiimily, three of his five sons greatly distin- 
guishing themselves in their respective professions; the 
eldest. Sir David, becoming chief justice of Bombay ; the 
third. Sir Frederick, the subject of the present sketdi ; and 
the fifth. Sir George, who obtained imperishable fame in the 
Indian army, by his exploits in AfTghanistan, and in numer- 
ous other well-fought fields in that part of the world. 

Frederick Pollock was bom on September 23, 1783. In 
his early years he lost much time at three metropolitan 
and suburban schools in which he told his father that he 
learned nothing. On being taken away from the last (Mr. 
Allan's at Yauxhall, where the humourist Theodore Hook 
was one of his schoolfellows and the late Andrew Amos 
another) he remained at home for sixteen months, employing 
them in very miscellaneous reading, principally devoted to 
English literature, chemistry, physiology, and other scientific 
subjects. He was then placed under Dr. Boberts at St 
Paul's schooL A story is related on good authority that 
young Pollock fancying that he was wasting his time there, 
as he intended to go to the bar, iatimated to the head master 
that he should not stay; and that the doctor, who was 



1837— FREDERICK POLLOCK. 247 

desirous of keeping so promising a lad, thereupon became so 
cross and disagreeable that one day the youth wrote him a 
note saying he should not return. The doctor, ignorant of 
the cordial terms on which the father and son lived together, 
sent the note to the father^ who called on him to express his 
regret at his son's determination, adding that he had advised 
him not to send the note. Upon which the doctor broke 
out, *' Ah I sir, you'll live to see that boy hanged^^ The 
doctor, on meeting Mrs. Pollock some years after his pupil 
had obtained university honours and professional success, 
congratulated her on her son's good fortune, adding, quite 
unconscious of the humorous contrast — ^^ Ah I madam, I 
always said he'd £111 an elevated situation." 

At the end of a year and a half he accordingly left St. 
Paul's, and entered Trinity College, Cambridge, in October 
1802. There, although prevented by a serious accident, 
which confined him to his bed, from attending any lectures 
during the whole of his third term, he went up for the 
college examination, and to his surprise was placed in the 
first class. Before he knew of his honourable position he 
had come up to town with the intention of not revisiting 
Cambridge, considerately thinking that his father could not 
afford the expense. But with the announcement of his 
success, his tutor, the Rev. George Frederick Tavel, ex- 
pressed a strong hope that he would return, and continue a 
career so auspiciously begun. His parents being equally 
anxious, the young man returned, fully resolved in his own 
mind to be senior wrangler, but also with a determination to 
relieve his father from part of the expenses by taking pupils. 
On applying for permission to do so his tutor generoudy and 
with true college-patriotism, said that the college could not 
afford to let him waste his time in teaching others, and that 
he should never send another bill to his father, but that 
whatever he wanted should be supplied, and he should not 



248 FREDERICK FOLLOCK. VICTORIA. 

be expected to refund till after he had taken his degree. 
Mr. Tavel felt himself more amply repaid for his munificence 
by his pupil's gratitude^ and subsequent success^ than by the 
ultimate discharge of the pecuniary debt. From that time 
Pollock was noted as a regular reading man^ alternating his 
college studies with reading and reciting the best specimens 
of ancient and modem oratory^ and with laying in an 
unusual stock of general literature. The effect of such 
studious habits was sure to be tested at the trial for his 
degree. After the examination which took place in January 
1806 a laughable incident occurred. He of course went to 
the senate house^ with a crowd of others, to see how he was 
placed. Another's name appeared to be at the top, bracketed 
alone with a line above and below. Then looking for his 
own, he got down to a name he felt certain could not be 
above his ; and having gone carefully up the list he found 
his name above the one he had supposed to be at the top, but 
pierced by the nail on which the paper hung ; and that he 
had attained the honour to which he had aspired. In the 
next year he had an equal triumph in classics by being 
elected a fellow of Trinity; and his connection with the 
university was kept up long after his marriage had deprived 
him of his fellowship by receiving the appointment of its 
commissary. 

Having been previously admitted a student at the Middle 
Temple in 1802, he was on November 27, 1807, called to 
the bar, where the reputation he brought from the university 
was one of the great elements of his future success. He 
joined the Northern circuit, but did not attend any sessions ; 
as his knowledge of bookkeeping and of commercial business 
in general was found so useful in cases of bankruptcy that 
it introduced him at once to considerable employment before 
the seventy lists of commissioners at that time existing. 
Many of the questions arising there requiring further in- 



1837— FREDEBICK POLLOCK. 249 

vestigation led consequently to his engagement in the actions 
that resulted in Westminster Hall ; so that he almost imme- 
diately obtained full practice at Nisi Prius. On his circuit 
he was ultimately equally fortunate. Among the eminent 
advocates who attended it he soon acquired a prominent 
station^ and at last had the undisputed lead. His business 
there was greatly increased before he had been three years at 
the bar by his very able and judicious management on the 
part of Captain (afterwards Admiral) Blake^ in the famous 
trial of Colonel Arthur before a court-martial for his impli- 
cation in a rebellion against the captain while governor of 
New South Wales. His success on that occasion attracted 
to his chambers many influential clients. A remarkable 
evidence of the rapid effect arising out of an occasional 
success happened to him. On the trial of a cause at the 
Guildhall sessions after Hilary term in 1827, in which Mr, 
Brougham as his junior opened the pleadings, it was his 
fortune to gain a triumphant verdict against Sir James 
Scarlett, who led on the other side. At the ensuing Spring 
assizes at Lancaster where he had previously never had 
above four briefs, he found no less than sixty-one delivered 
to him. Mr. Pollock received his patent as king's counsel 
some weeks after. 

In the forensic conflicts in which he was subsequently 
engaged he had the usual alternations of victory and defeat. 
In May 1831 he became member for Huntingdon, and in 
the autumn of 1834, when Sir Robert Peel became prime 
minister, he was at once promoted to the office of attorney- 
general, without having, as is usually the case, filled any 
minor post. His appointment, which was made on December 
17, and was accompanied with the customary honour of 
knighthood, lasted only four months; Lord Melbourne's 
administration being restored to power, and retaining it for 
more than the five succeeding years. On the resumption of 



250 FBEDEBICK POLLOCK. Victobia. 

the government by Sir Robert Peel in 1841, Sir Frederick 
was replaced in his former office on September 6 ; and in 
April 1844, he was raised to the distingnidiied position he 
now occupies, on the death of Lord Abinger. On becoming 
lord chief baron of the Exchequer^ he was immediately 
called to the Privy CounciL 

He continued to represent Huntingdon till his elevation 
to the bench. In the House of Conmions, by his general 
deportment and unaffected eloquence, and particularly by 
the temperate manner in which he had on each occasion per- 
formed the duties of his responsible office of attorney-general, 
he occupied that most enviable position of being popular 
with both sides of the house, the evidence of which was 
specially shown in the cordial congratulations he received 
from opponents as well as friends on the brilliant victories at 
that time gained by his gallant brother. General Sir George 
Pollock, in the Indian campaign. 

Of the chief baron's legal and judicial merits these pages 
profess not to speak. But at the end of twenty years 
from his appointment, and of more than eighty from his 
birth, it may be allowed to record that he is to be found in 
his place exercising all the functions of his arduous office as 
efficiently as when he was at first appointed ; still frequently 
called upon to preside in most important cases, and never 
flinching from undertaking them ; tempering his judgments 
so as not unnecessarily to hurt the feelings of those against 
whom he is obliged to decide ; and ever acting towards his 
brethren on the bench, and the counsel at the bar of his 
court, so as to be a general favourite. Having suffered little 
from attacks of illness, and retaining much of his former 
activity, he may be truly said to enjoy a green old age. 

He has been long a fellow of the Royal Society, and 
among other essays contributed to that body he read in 1843, 
while he was attorney-general, a paper " On a Method of 



1887— BOBEBT MONSEY BOLFE. 251 

proving the three leading properties of the Ellipse and 
Hyperbole^" and he still has delight in pursuing his mathe- 
matical studies. 

Sir Frederick has been twice married. His first wife, his 
union with whom lasted from 1813 to 1827, was the third 
daughter of H. Bivers, Esq., of Spring Gardens. His second 
wife, whom he married in 1834 and who still suryives, was 
a daughter of Captain £ichard Langslow, of Hatton near 
Hounslow, where the chief baron now resides. He had 
children by each of them, no less than twenty-five in all, of 
whom twenty survive, ten by the first union, and ten by the 
second. He can boast of a more numerous issue than is 
usually the lot of humanity. Besides his twenty children 
he counts forty grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren ; 
and he has the gratification of seeing his eldest son's eldest 
son the first man of his year at his own Alma Mater. 



ROLFE, ROBERT MONSEY, Lord Cranworth. 

B. E. 1839. Com. G. S. 185a Y. €. 1850. Loed Justigb A. 1851. 

LoED Chano. 1852. 

This nobleman, after passing through all the grades above 
noted, terminated his public judicial career in the office of 
lord high chancellor of Great Britain ; and is now one of 
the three surviving ex-possessors of that responsible post of 
this reign. The family of Bolfe has held a respectable posi- 
tion in the county of Norfolk for the last three centuries ; 
and his ancestors for three generations have been beneficed 
clergymen in it. His grandfather the Bev. Robert Bolfe, 
rector of Hilborough, by his marriage into the Nelson 
family became connected with the gallant admiral, who was 
first cousin of the lord chancellor's father, the Bev. Edmund 
Bolfe, rector of Cockley-Clay. His mother was Jemima, 
fourth daughter of William Alexander, Esq., and grand- 



252 ROBERT M0N8EY ROLFE. Victoria. 

daughter of the celebrated Dr. Monsey, physician to Chelsea 
Hospital. He was the elder of Aeir two sons, and was bom 
at Cranworth on December 18, 1790. 

After spending some little time at the Bury school he 
was sent to Winchester ; from whence he proceeded to the 
University of Cambridge, and was matriculated at Trinity 
College. He took his degree as seventeenth wrangler in 
1812, and was then elected fellow of Downing College. 
For his initiation into the mysteries of the law he selected 
Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar by that society in 
1816. After sixteen years' practice as a junior barrister in 
chancery, he received the honour of a silk gown in 1832, 
and entered parliament in the same year as member for 
Penryn. Supporting there the liberal side of politics he 
was appointed solicitor-general on November 6, 1834, on 
the elevation of Sir Charles Christopher Pepys to the 
mastership of the Bolls ; but was obliged in little more than 
a month to give place to Sir William Webb FoUett, on the 
accession to power of the conservative party. But at the 
end of six months more he was restored to his place with 
the return of the whigs to power, and was then knighted. 
He continued solicitor-general from May 4, 1835, to the 
end of November 1839, when, on the removal of Sir 
William Maule to the Common Pleas, he was raised to the 
bench of the Exchequer. Though he had only practised as 
a barrister in the Court of Chancery, he had acquired ex- 
perience in cases at Nisi Prius and criminal law as recorder 
of Ipswich, an office which he had held for many years. To 
this is to be attributed the facility with which he entered on 
his new duties, and the excellent manner in which he dis- 
charged them. 

During the eleven years that Sir Robert sat in the 
Exchequer, he acted, from June 19 to July 15, 1850, as 
one of the conunissioners of the Great Seal ; and on the 



1837— JOHN ROMILLY. 253 

2nd of the following November he was, on the death of Sir 
Lancelot Shadwell, constituted the third vice chancellor, 
and in the following month was created Lord Cranworth ; 
being the first and only instance of a vice chancellor re- 
ceiving the dignity of the peerage. In the next year the 
act passed for constituting two lord justices of appeal in 
Chancery ; and on October 8, 1851, Sir James Lewis 
Knight-Bruce and Lord Cranworth were the first two se- 
lected for the experiment. 

Before fifteen months were passed he was called upon to 
take a still higher office. On the resumption of pow^r by 
the liberal party, the Great Seal on December 28, 1852 was 
placed in his hands, where it remained for the five years 
during which they conducted the administratioil. On the 
accession of Lord Derby in February 1858, he of course 
resigned his office ; and was not replaced in it when Lord 
Palmerston, in June 1859, became prime minister; his in- 
creased age inducing him not to resist the claims of Sir 
Kichard Bethell. But since his retirement he has devoted 
himself to hearing appeals both in the House of Lords and 
the Privy Council. 

He married in 1845 Laura, daughter of William Carr, 
Esq., of Frognal. 

ROMH^LY, JOHN. 

M. K. 1851. 

To Sir John Romilly, the present master of the Bolls, the 
literary world owes a deep debt of gratitude, not only for 
the energetic manner in which he has carried out and com- 
pleted the great undertaking so worthily commenced by his 
predecessor Lord Langdale, and rendered the public records, 
political, domestic, and legal, accessible to all ; but also for 
the ready aid and increased facilities he has given to those 



254 JOHN ROMILLT. YiCTOBiA. 

who are pursuing luBtorical inquiries. The useftil calendars 
of state papers^ and the interesting early chronicles^ which 
have been, and which continue to be published under his 
direction, the former affording an easy rrferenee to a multi- 
tudinous and valuable collection, and the latter adding greatly 
to Ae authentic annals of the kingdom, wiU remain a laatirg 
monument of his taste, judgment and discrimination. 

Sir John is descended from a French Protestant family 
which took refuge in England on the revocation of the 
Edict of Nantes. His father waa Sir Samuel Bomilly, 
whose name will be less remembered for his official rank as 
solicitor-general during the short administration of the Whigs 
in 1806-7, than for his commanding talents as an advocate, 
as a senator, as the unflinching assertor of the rights and 
liberties of the people, and as the first proposer of those 
amendments of the law> both civil and criminal, which, 
though their value or necessity were disparaged at the time, 
have since been fully recognised and adopted into our juris- 
prudence. The author cannot refer to his name without 
recalling the reverence and admiration with which for many 
years from his youth upwards he regarded him, nor without 
remembering, not only the valuable professional assistance, 
but the kindness which he invariably experienced in his in- 
tercourse with him. By his wife, Ann, daughter of Francis 
Garbett, Esq., of Knill Court in Herefordshire, he had a 
large family, of whom the subject of the present notice was 
the second son. 

Sir John was bom at the beginning of this century, and 
and completed his education at Trinity College, Cambridge, 
taking his degree of M. A. in 1826. Being intended for his 
father's profession he had previously entered Gray's Inn and 
was called to the bar by that society in 1827* In 1832 he 
was returned to parliament by the borough of Bridport, 
which constituency he changed for Devonport from 1847 to 



1837— JAMES SCARLETT. 255 

1852 ; since which^ having in the meantime been constituted 
master of the BoUs^ he has confined his attention to his 
double duties as a judge and as the official comptroller of 
the records of the state ; in the performance of the latter of 
which (for of the former I purposely avoid any remark) he 
has gained universal admiration. 

His professional life in the interval did not much vary 
from the career of every successful barrister. After obtain- 
ing the honour of a silk gown he succeeded Sir David 
Dundas as solicitor-general in March 1848^ and in July 
1850, on the promotion of Sir John Jervis to the chief seat 
in the Common Pleas, he became attorney-general; from 
which in eight months he was raised to the office which he 
has since so usefully occupied ; to which he was appointed 
on March 28, 1851. 

He married a daughter of the late Dr. William Otter, 
Bishop of Chichester. 

ST. LEONARD'S, LORD. See E. B. Sugden. 
SCARLETT, JAMES, Lord Abinger. 

Ch. B. £. 1837. 
See under the Reign of William IV. 

To that branch of the family of Scarlett which in the 
seventeenth century was settled in Sussex the lord chief 
baron belonged. His immediate ancestor, Thomas Scarlett 
of Eastbourne, migrated to Jamaica where his brother Cap- 
tain Francis Scarlett had established himself soon after 
Cromwell's conquest of that island in 1655, and sat in the 
first assembly. Thomas became possessed of large estates 
there and his descendants were men of considerable wealth. 
Bobert Scm'lett, the fourth in lineal succession from Thomas, 
by his marriage with Elizabeth Anglin, a great-great-grand- 
daughter of Henry Laurence, who was president of Crom- 



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1837— JAMES SCARLETT. 257 

had, by subtle distinctions, of extricating the point in dispute 
from the involvements that surrounded it. It was considered 
that he had too great an influence over the judges, and it was 
said of him, that ^* he had invented a machine, by a secret 
use of which in court, he could always make the head of a 
judge nod assent to his proposition." ^ 

This striking success rendered it impossible any longer to 
refuse him the accustomed distinction ; and in 1816 he was 
called within the bar as king's counsel. From that time for 
the next eighteen years he enjoyed such an ascendency in 
the courts that it became an actual race between litigants, 
which should secure his services in the impending contest, 
and the loser felt that one of his best chances of success was 
snatched from him. His influence over juries was wonderful 
— some called it magical : it was not obtained by any extra- 
ordinary eloquence, for he seemed carefully to avoid any 
rhetorical flourishes, — ^but it was produced by laying before 
them in clear and simple language such a well digested ex- 
position of the case of his client, as made it appear that he 
himself was satisfied of its justice, and that they had no 
choice but to endorse his opinion by their verdict. There 
was no apparent effort in his argument, no violent expression 
in his address, no attempt at brilliant periods ; but the im- 
pression was effected by an easy, gentlemanly, and colloquial 
appeal to their understandings — perhaps in some degree 
heightened by his handsome person, his musical voice, and 
pleasing countenance. Yet when the occasion demanded it, 
neither energy nor eloquence were wanting. Coleridge in 
his « Table Talk " (June 29, 1833) says, " I think Sir James 
Scarlett's speech for the defendant in the late action of 
Cobbett w. The Times for a libel, worthy of the best ages of 
Greece or Kome ; though to be sure some of his remarks 

* Lord CampbelVs Chancellors, vi. 437. 
VOL TX. S 



258 JAMES 8CABLETT. Victoria. 

could not have been very palatable to his cKents." Whether 
the case was trifling or important^ he took the same pains 
for his client^ and seemed to be equally interested in the 
result. One of his greatest merits was that when he was 
engaged in a cause his services might always be relied upon. 
He disdained to adopt the vicious practice of some barristers, 
then far too common^ of wandering about from court to court, 
and taking contemporaneous briefs in all, to the damage of 
those whose retainers and even whose briefs they had 
accepted : and many has been the time when Mr. Scarlett, 
deserted by those employed in the same cause, has borne the 
brunt of a long day's investigation, sole and unaided.^ He 
occasionally expressed his indignation against what he 
deemed dishonesty in practice or conduct with great severity; 
and soon after he became a king's counsel an action was 
brought against him for a lashing animadversion he had 
administered to an attorney at the York assizes. A verdict 
was given in his favour, which was afterwards confirmed by 
the full court in London, on the ground that for words 
spoken by a counsel *^ pertinent and relative to the matter 
in dispute " an action could not be maintained. 

With the natural ambition to enter parliament he con- 
tested the borough of Lewes twice, in 1812 and 1816, both 
times unsuccessfully. But in 1818 Lord Fitzwilliam pro- 
vided him with a seat as the representative of Peterborough. 
In 1822 he stood a contest for the University of Cambridge, 
but was again defeated. He afterwards sat for Maldon, then 
for Cockermouth, and lastly, at the first election after the 
Reform Act, for the city of Norwich. In the senate he was 

* The author writes this from personal knowledge of the fact. On one 
occasion, after a fatiguing trial, which commenced at nine o'clock on one 
morning and was conducted by him throughout the day without the presence 
of either of his colleagues, he addressed the jury in reply at two o'clock the 
next morning, apparently unfatigued, with one of his most eifectiye speeches. 



1837— JAMES SCARLETT. 259 

not SO successful as in the forum. The easy style which 
commanded the attention of juries was not altogether suitable 
to a more enlightened and critical audience, and failed to 
produce any deep impression. In politics he ranked at first 
as a moderate Whig, and supported Sir Samuel Romilly in 
his efforts towards the amelioration of the criminal law. He 
also introduced a proposition for the improvement of the 
Poor Laws, which, though not then encouraged, was the 
groundwork of future legislation. When something like an 
amalgamation of parties took place on Mr. Canning's becom- 
ing prime minister in April 1827, Mr. Scarlett, with the 
consent of the Whig leaders and the approval of his patron 
Earl Fitzwilliam, accepted the oflSce of attorney-general on the 
27th of that month, and was as usual knighted. Before the end 
of the year the death of Mr. Canning, and the failure of Lord 
Goderich his successor, brought that ministry to an end ; and 
on the Duke of Wellington assuming the administration Sir 
James retired from his office in January 1828, to resume it 
however in June 1829, when Sir Charles Wetherell his 
successor resigned in disgust at the liberal measures proposed 
by the Duke. 

With the accession of King William IV. came the triumph 
of the Whigs, in November 1830, and the consequent re- 
moval of Sir James, who from his first entrance into office 
had been gradually approaching those conservative, but 
liberal, principles, which for the whole remainder of his life 
he consistently maintained. His permanent change of opinion 
was no doubt confirmed by the coldness, and what he deemed 
the ingratitude, of the leaders of the Whig party, who forgot 
that he accepted office at their request, or at least with their 
approbation. 

During the time that he executed the functions of attorney- 
general he lost some of his popularity by his prosecutions of 
the " Atlas" and "Morning Post" for libels : but he amended 

s 2 



260 JAMES SCARLETT. ViToBiA. 

the law relating to them by an act modifying the provisions 
of the six acts against public libels. To him the profession 
is indebted for seyeral improvements in the administration of 
. justice. He got rid of the movable terms and placed their 
commencement and their close upon fixed days in the year : 
and he prepared the bill for the abolition of the Welsh judi- 
cature and for enabling the judges of Westminster Hall to 
administer justice on circuit throughout the principality ; at 
the same time extending the number of the judges from 
twelve to fifteen. 

Joining in a bold opposition to the various measures of 
radical reform that were then introduced, and largely in- 
creasing his fortune by his undisputed ascendency in the 
courts, he awaited a change in the administration with the 
certainty of then receiving the reward of his labours. That 
change was delayed till 1834, when Sir Robert Peel became 
minister. Sir James Scarlett was then, on December 24, 
constituted lord chief baron of the Exchequer, in the place 
of Lord Lyndhurst, who was raised for the second time to 
the woolsack. In the next month he was created Baron 
Abinger, of Abinger in Surrey, an estate he had purchased : 
being the first chief baron who received while in that oflSce 
the honour of the peerage. 

His reputation as a judge did not equal his fame as an 
advocate. He had too much the habit of deciding which of 
the two parties in a cause was in the right, and arguing in 
his favour ; while juries, who had been accustomed to be led 
by his pleadings as a counsel, refused to submit to his dicta- 
tion as a judge. The consequence was that he frequently 
lost verdicts which, had he shown less bias, would have been 
conformable to his opinion. He presided in the Exchequer 
for nearly ten years ; and attended the Norfolk circuit in the 
spring of 1844 apparently in full health and vigour. But after 
sitting in court at Bury St. Edmunds, and going through the 



1837— LANCELOT SHAD WELL. 261 

business of the day with his accustomed clearness and skill, 
till seven o'clock in the evening, he was two hours after 
struck with paralysis, which left him speechless, and in five 
days terminated his Ufe on April 7. His remains were 
removed for interment at Abinger. 

His first wife, after producing to him three sons and 
two daughters, died in 1829 ; and left him a widower for 
fourteen years. In 1843 the last year of his life he married, 
secondly, the daughter of Lee Steere Steere, Esq., of Jayes 
in Surrey, and the widow of the Rev. H. J. Ridley of 
Ockley, by whom he left no children. His eldest daughter 
married Lord Campbell, and before he attained that title, was 
honoured with a peerage in her own right as Baroness Strath- 
eden. His eldest son enjoyed the title after him till 1861, 
and was succeeded by the present, the third' baron. The 
chief baron's second son Sir James Yorke Scarlett, K.C.B., 
has acquired great fame as a soldier and now holds the re- 
sponsible post of adjutant-general to the forces; and his 
youngest son, Peter Campbell Scarlett, has gained consider- 
able distinction as a diplomatist. 



SHADWELL, LANCELOT. 

V. C. 1837. Com. G. S. 1850. 
See under the Beigns of George IV. and William IV. 

Vice-Chancellor Sir Lancelot Shadwell was the 
eldest son of Lancelot Shadwell, Esq., of Lincoln's Inn, and 
Elizabeth, third daughter of Charles Whitmore, Esq., of 
Southampton. His father was a barristei* of high reputation 
and immense practice as a real property lawyer, from whom 
he naturally inherited his great love of that branch, and the 
excellence in it which he afterwards exhibited. He was bom 
on May 3, 1779, and was educated at Eton, from whence he 



262 LANCELOT 8HADWELL. Victoria. 

removed to St. John's College, Cambridge, where he exercised 
that industry, without which no success is to be attained, to so 
good an effect that on his taking his degree of B.A. in 1800 
he was honourably placed as seventh wrangler, and highly 
distinguished himself in classics by obtaining one of the 
chancellor's medals. With such results he was nearly sure 
to succeed in passing the very strict examination for a fellow- 
ship in the college, to which he was accordingly elected; 
and he proceeded M.A. in 1803; to which was added in 
1842, the honorary degree of LL.D. At St. John's he 
formed an intimacy with Mr. (afterwards Lord) Denman, 
which was never interrupted, and with whom he commenced 
those athletic exercises for which he afterwards became fa- 
mous. One of their efforts was a walk from Cambridge to 
London in one day, at the rate of four miles in the hour 
throughout the journey. 

Following his father's footsteps he entered the society of 
Lincoln's Inn, by which he was called to the bar on Feb- 
ruary 10, 1803, and in little more than a year lost his 
fellowship by marrying a sister of Sir John Bichardson, the 
judge of the Common Pleas. After a very successful prac- 
tice in the court of Chancery as a junior barrister for 
eighteen years, he was honoured with a silk gown in 1821. 
He then acquired a considerable lead, but submitted to a 
serious loss in a pecuniary sense, by honourably confining 
himself to the lord chancellor's court, and not following the 
practice which was then too commonly adopted, of taking 
briefs in the other equity courts ; not being able according 
to his own expression " to induce himself to think that it is 
consistent with justice, much less with honour, to undertake 
to lead a cause, and either to forsake it altogether, or give it 
an imperfect, hasty, and divided attention — consequences that 
inevitably result from the attempt to conduct causes before 
two judges sitting at the same time in different places." 



1837— LANCELOT SHADWELL. 263 

In 1826 he enteied parliament as member for Bipon^ a 
borough in which he had the opportunity, of- which he fully 
availed himself, of doing much good, as the manager of the 
large property of Miss Lawrence the principal owner. In 
the year to which his senatorial career was confined he 
applied himself to remedy some of the evils attendant upon 
the existing laws of real property, by limiting the periods 
during which titles might be disputed. Time was not given 
him to bring his suggestions to a successful issue, but many 
of them have since been adopted. 

When Vice-chancellor Sir Anthony Hart was raised to 
the chancellorship of Ireland, Mr. Shadwell was appointed 
his successor on November 1 , 1827. He presided in his court 
for twenty-three years, during which he twice fiUed the 
office of second commissioner of the Great Seal; the first 
time from April 23, 1835, to January 16, 1836, on the resig- 
nation by Lord Lyndhurst of his second chancellorship, in 
conjunction with Sir Charles Pepys (afterwards Lord Cot- 
tenham), the master of the Bolls, and Mr. Justice Bosanquet ; 
and the second time between the resignation of Lord Cotten- 
ham and the appointment of Lord Truro, from June 19 to 
July 15, 1850, his colleagues being Lord Langdale, the 
master of the Rolls, and Mr. Baron Rolfe (afterwards Lord 
Cranworth). Whether as vice-chancellor or lord commis- 
sioner he was a universal favourite both with the bar and the 
public for the courteousness of his demeanour and the kind- 
ness of his nature. No one, who ever advised with him as a 
barrister or sat under him as a judge, can remember a word 
of harshness coming from his lips, or can forget the patient 
way in which he listened to the arguments of counsel or the 
pleasant mode in which he delivered his judgments. Yet 
there was no want of decent gravity in his manner, nor of 
solidity in his decisions. They exhibited the legal learning 
he had early imbibed, and proved his eminent qualifications 
for the judicial chair. 



264 LANCELOT SHADWELL. Victoria. 

His handsome person and sweet yet manly countenance 
impressed all in his favour^ and his active habits, with the 
custom he had of bathing every day, whatever the weather, 
gave him a robust appearance that promised an extreme 
length of life. So fond was he of the water that it was said, 
with what truth we will not decide, that he once granted an 
injunction during the long vacation while immersed in that 
element But he was not destined for the long life that his 
healthy aspect promised. Soon after the termination of the 
duties of his last commission, he was seized with an illness 
which terminated fatally at his residence at Bam Elms in 
Surrey on August 10, 1850. The estimation in which he 
was regarded by his brother judges may be judged from the 
affecting language used by Vice-Chancellor Knight-Bruce, 
on opening his court at the beginning of the next term. 
Addressing the attorney-general. Sir John Romilly, he said, 
" It has been impossible for me to enter the court to-day 
without a renewal of sorrow for the loss of one so lately taken 
from us, by whom for so many years this chair was filled, 
and from which it is almost startling to hear another voice 
than his. In these feelings I am sure the bar participate. 
We have lost at once a friend dear to us all, and a judge 
distinguished for his great knowledge of the law that he 
administered — distinguished for various acquirements — dis- 
tinguished for judicial patience — ever " swift to hear and slow 
to decide" — ^pure and blameless in life — an example of cour- 
tesy, gentleness, and amenity — who never said a word in- 
tended to give pain, nor ever harboured an unkind thought, 
or one acrimonious feeling — ^Jlere et meminisse relictum esV " 

Sir Lancelot's first wife died after bringing to him six sons. 
His second wife was Frances, daughter and coheir of Captain 
Locke, and by her he had six more sons, and five daughters, 
in all seventeen children, of whom he left eleven surviving. 



1837— WILLIAM SHEE. 265 



SHEE, WILLIAM. 
Just. Q. B. 1863. 

Sir William Shee is the last appointed of our present 
judges, and the first who has been raised to the English 
bench under the Koman Catholic Relief Act, which was 
passed so long as five-and-thirty years ago, to take away the 
disabilities which attached to persons of that persuasion. In 
all other departments, civil, military, and legislative, it has 
been ever since acted upon ; but the judicial ofiice has till 
now been excepted, whether from the deficiency of properly- 
qualified barristers professing that faith, or from a purposed 
avoidance of those professing it, I do not pretend to judge. 
Had this liberality been extended to Roman Catholic barris- 
ters before Lord Campbell had changed from the chief- 
justiceship of the Queen's Bench to the chancellorship of 
Great Britain, he would have been deprived of one of the 
arguments with which he opposed a Roman Catholic sheriff 
appointing his own chaplain. 

William Shee is of an old Irish family. His father Joseph 
Shee, Esq., of Thomastown in the county of Kilkenny, was 
a London merchant, and his mother was Teresa, daughter of 
John Darell, Esq., of Scotney Castle in Kent. He was born 
at Finchley in Middlesex in 1804, and being brought up in 
the religion of his parents was sent for instruction to the 
Roman Catholic college of St. Cuthbert, near Durham, from 
whence he proceeded to the university of Edinburgh. .Having 
next been admitted a member of Lincoln's Inn, he was called 
to the bar by that society on June 19, 1828 ; and began his 
forensic labours by travelling the Home circuit, and attending 
the Surrey sessions. Both there and in the London courts 
his advocacy received great encouragement, and in a few 
years he gained such a position as to justify him in accepting 



266 WILLIAM SHEE. Yictobia. 

the Serjeant's coif in 1840^ when that honourable degree was 
for a short period restored to all its privileges. His reputa- 
tion was greatlj increased by his publication in the same 
year of an edition of Lord Tenterden's work on Shipping, 
and the extensive knowledge he displayed on that branch of 
law. In 1847 he received a patent of precedence, and ten 
years afterwards he was made queen's serjeant 

On the liberal side of politics, to which he had attached 
himself firom the outset of his career, he was desirous of 
entering parliament, and after an unsuccessful attempt in 
1847 to represent the borough of Marylebone, he obtained 
a seat in 1852 for his family county of Kilkenny; which 
however did not return him at the next election in 1857. 
In the House of Commons he supported the principles 
which he had always professed, and naturally advocated the 
claims of the Boman Catholics. 

In his professional course he had long been the head of his 
circuit, and in London he was one of the most popular leaders. 
It was not however till he had been more than thirty-five 
years at the bar that he was called to the bench, although on 
more than one occasion he had been employed on the circuit 
to preside in the place of an absent judge. He was at length, 
on the death of Sir William Wightman, selected to supply 
his place in the Queen's Bench on December 18, 1863. 

He married in 1837 Mary the daughter of Sir James 
Gordon the premier baronet of Scotland, whom he lost after 
an union of twenty-five years. 



1837— EDWABD BURTENSHAW SUGDEN. 267 



STUART, JOHN. 

V. C. 852. 

Sir John Stuart is the second of the three present vice- 
chancellors. He is a Scotchman by birth, being the second 
son of Dugald Stuart, Esq., of Ballychelish in the parish of 
Appin in Argyleshire. He was born in 1793, and coming 
to England and entering Lincoln's Inn he attained the degree 
of a barrister in 1819. He practised in the Court of Chan- 
cery for twenty years before he was made a queen's counsel 
in 1839, and held that dignity for thirteen years more with 
a very considerable lead in the court. For the last six of 
those years he was a member of parliament, representing 
Newark for the whole time, except the last two months when 
he was returned for Bury St. Edmunds. 

On the lamented death of Sir James Parker he was 
appointed vice-chancellor in his place on September 14, 1852, 
in the first ministry of Lord Derby ; and has presided in his 
court ever since. 

In 1813 he married the daughter of Duncan Stewart, Esq. 



SUGDEN, EDWARD BURTENSHAW, Lord St. Leonard's. 

LoBD Chang. 1852. 

This erudite jurist may boast of having raised himself by 
his own industry and merits from an inferior rank in the 
estimation of the world to the highest grade in the law, and 
to an honoured place among the peers of the realm. Lord 
St. Leonard's and Lord Tenterden are splendid instances of 
the excellence of the British Constitution, which, regardless 
of birth or position, freely admits the most deserving to a 
competition for the honours it has to dispense. Kichard 



268 EDWARD BURTENSHAW 8UGDEN. VicTOBiA. 

Sugden the father of the chancellor followed the same busi- 
ness in London, though on a larger scale^ that John Abbott 
the father of the chief justice practised in Canterbury ; and 
each may well feel pride in reflecting on his origin. 

Edward Burtenshaw Sugden was the second son of his 
father and was born in 1781. He was placed as a member 
of Lincoln's Inn, by which society he was called to the bar 
in 1807. For ten years afterwards he practised as a con- 
veyancing counsel, and soon became the most distinguished 
follower of that branch of the science. His early success 
was promoted by his publication of a " Practical Treatise on 
the Law of Vendors and Purchasers of Estates " (written 
before he was twenty-one) two editions of which were ex- 
hausted before his call to the bar. This was followed in 1808 
by his " Practical Treatise on Powers." Then came his 
** Series of Letters to a Man of Property on buying, sell- 
ing, &c. Estates," of which he issued fifty years afterwards 
a seventh edition under the new title of ** A Handy Book 
on Property Law." In 1811 he published a most masterly 
edition of *^ Gilbert's Law of Uses and Trusts." By the 
excellence of these and other works, all written in the 
clearest and most vigorous style and combining legal re- 
search with practical ability, for which frequent editions 
were called, and always issued with valuable additions and 
improvements, he established such a name that few felt their 
titles good unless they were submitted to his revision. The 
natural consequence was that he gained a larger income than 
any competitor; but at the same time was so overloaded 
with abstracts to inspect and deeds to settle, that at length 
he felt it necessary to withdraw from that laborious pursuit 
and confine himself to court practice. 

He went in 1817 into the court of Chancery, but there he 
did not obtain much relief, for briefs came in as abstracts 
had formerly, and he soon had as many litigant parties to 



1837— EDWARD BURTENSHAW SUGDEN. 269 

plead for as he before had purchasers to advise. He received 
a silk gown in 1822, and on the elevation of Sir Nicolas 
Conyngham Tindal in June 1829, just a year before the 
death of George IV. he succeeded him as solicitor-general, 
and received the order of knighthood. 

This office he resigned when the Whigs came into power 
in November 1830, and remained out of office for more than 
four years ; but during that time he lost little from the exclu- 
sion, as he had the undisputed lead in the court of Chancery. 
When in December 1834 the Conservatives regained the 
ascendency, Sir Edward Sugden was at once selected to fill 
the highest office in Ireland, being appointed lord-chancellor 
of that country. The short tenure of the conservative power 
obliged him to resign in April 1835 ; but such judicial 
capacity did he exhibit, that on the exclusion of the Whig 
government in September 1841, he was, with the approbation 
of all parties, replaced in his former position at the head of 
the high court of Irish Chancery. Up to this time he was 
an active member of parliament, sitting successively for 
Weymouth and Melcombe Regis, St. Mawes, and ultimately 
for Ripon. 

He retained his seat on the Irish bench with the highest 
reputation for nearly four years, and it was with sincere 
regret that the practitioners in his court saw him depart on 
another change of ministry in July 1846. He had then 
above five years more of comparative idleness, till his poli- 
tical friends again resuming power availed themselves of the 
opportunity of showing their estimation of his brilliant abili- 
ties and useful services, by raising him to the highest office 
in the law, lord high chancellor of Great Britain ; to which 
he was appointed on February 27, 1852, being created the 
day after a peer of England by the title of Baron St, 
Leonard's of Slaugham in Sussex. The inconvenient system 
of changing the lord chancellor with the ministry obliged him 



270 THOMAS NOON TALFOUBD. Victoria. 

to resign at the end of ten months, on December 28, in the 
same year. Exceeding at that time the age of seventy years, 
he has refused office on the several accessions of the con- 
servatives to power ; but in his place in parliament and in 
• the judicial committee of the Privy Council he has continued 
to afford his valuable assistance. Among minor honours he 
was nominated high steward of Kingston-on-Thames and a 
deputy-lieutenant for Sussex; and in 1833 received the 
degree of LL.D. from the University of Cambridge. 

As he is still living, it would be indelicate to enter into 
any other incidents of his life, and presumptuous to attempt 
any criticism of his powers; but no one will refuse to endorse 
the opinion that in all questions of the law of real property 
the name of Sugden will be perpetually quoted as an in- 
fallible authority. 

By his marriage with the daughter of Mr. John Knapp 
he has several children. 



TALFOURD, THOMAS NOON. 

Just. C. P. 1849. 

That a devotion to literature, and the possession of a poetic 
genius, are not necessarily incompatible with abstruser 
studies, nor absolute impediments to professional success, is 
exemplified in the career of Sir Thomas Noon Talfourd, 
who from the beginning to the end of his life, united to the 
labours of the law the more agreeable avocations of an 
essayist, a poet, and a dramatist. The union of these 
apparently opposite studies did not prevent him from ob- 
taining a considerable mastery of both ; nor did the general 
reputation of this double occupation induce the legal world 
to suppose that he would neglect or fail in his exertions for 
them, because he employed himself occasionally in lighter 



1837— THOMAS NOON TALFOURD. 271 

pursuits. It is not, perhaps, too much to say that he owed 
his success and his promotion as much to his literary as to 
his legal character ; and it is not improbable that in future he 
will be remembered more as the author of " Ion " and as the 
friend and biographer of Charles Lamb, than as one of the * 
judges of Westminster Hall. This divided empire, however, 
of literature and law is not one to be recommended, and the 
success in this instance must be taken more as the exception 
than as the rule. 

Thomas Noon Talfourd was the son of Edward Talfourd, 
a brewer at Reading, not in very prosperous circumstances, 
and of a daughter of the Rev. Thomas Noon, an independent 
minister there. He was bom at Reading on January 26, 
1795. His education commenced at the dissenters' school at 
Mill Hill, and proceeded at the grammar school at Reading, 
then holding a high character under the guidance of the 
celebrated Dr. Valpy. At the latter were strengthened and 
confirmed those poetic and dramatic inclinations which he 
had shown from his earliest youth, and the indulgence of 
which had hitherto been confined to the sacred dramas of 
Hannah More, and works of that class. He displayed his 
talent in some juvenile pieces, long since suppressed ; but he 
always attributed his future more matured efforts to the 
classical taste which he imbibed from his accomplished pre- 
ceptor. 

After gaining many of the prizes and other distinctions of 
the school, stern necessity obliged him to quit the flowery 
paths of elegant literature, and to seek the means of sub- 
sistence in London. There, to support himself, he obtained 
employment as a newspaper reporter, and as a regular con- 
tributor to periodical publications. At the same time he 
sought instruction in the intricacies of law from the eminent 
special pleader, Mr. Joseph Chitty ; and to qualify himself 
for the grade of a barrister he partook of all the initiatory 



272 THOMAS NOON TALFOURD. Vicroaii. 

dinners at the Middle Temple^ no further preparation being 
at that time required. 

His novitiate being completed he was called to the bar on 
February 9, 1821, and attended the Oxford circuit, where 
for some time he was engaged in reporting the assize business 
for the " Times," and obtained great credit for the impar- 
tial manner in which he detailed the exertions of his colleagues, 
and for the modest avoidance of his own name when he 
happened to be engaged. Thus gaining the respect of his 
associates, his genial qualities soon made him a general 
favourite ; and the observance of his industry in reporting, 
and the competent knowledge which it indicated, brought 
him a gradual increase of business from tho^e who distribute 
professional favours. To these recommendations was added 
a powerful and attractive style of oratory, which greatly 
availed him when taking a leading part, and at the end of 
twelve years the position he had secured justified him in apply- 
ing for the distinction of a silk gown. He took the degree of 
a Serjeant in 1833 ; and when the court of Common Pleas 
was soon after opened to all barristers he received a patent 
of precedence which gave him rank in all the courts. He had 
two years before been selected as deputy recorder of the 
town of Banbury. 

From this time he proceeded with distinguished success, 
and eventually became the acknowledged head of his circuit. 
In the metropolis also he shared with the eminent counsel 
who then graced the courts the conduct of the more impor- 
tant conflicts that engaged them; never sacrificing the 
interests of his clients to a love of display, and being as 
successful in their management and gaining as many verdicts 
as the most popular of his competitors. Two events occur- 
ring in the year 1835 tended greatly to extend his fame, — 
his entrance into parliament as the representative of his 
native town, and the appearance of his tragedy of " Ion " on 



1837-- THOMAS NOON TALFOURD. 273 

the stage. In the former he soon became conspicuous^ not 
only for his oratorical powers, by which lawyers do not 
generally make themselves acceptable to the House, but for 
two great measures which he advocated with extraordinary 
zeal and effect ; one securing to the mother the right to have 
access to her children as long as her character is unstained ; 
and the other securing to the author an extended period 
during which he or his family may enjoy the fruits of his 
labours. To the next parliament of 1841 Mr. Serjeant 
Talfourd was not returned, but in that of 1847 he resumed 
his seat for Beading till his elevation to the bench. His 
dramatic efforts during this interval did not meet with the 
brilliant success that attended the production of ** Ion." They 
consisted of " The Athenian Captive," and *' The Massacre 
of Glencoe," which were both acted, and " The Castilian," 
which was privately circulated. His other publications were 
numerous, among the most important of which were " Vaca- 
tion Rambles," a " Life of Charles Lamb," and an " Essay 
on the Greek Drama," contributed to a Cyclopaedia. 

It was not till eight-and-twenty years after his call to the 
bar, and sixteen years after he took the degree of seqeant, 
that he was admitted into the judicial college. Upon the 
lamented death of Mr. Justice Coltman, Serjeant Talfourd 
was called upon, in July 1849, to take his place as a judge 
of the Common Pleas: when he received the accustomed 
honour of knighthood. The periodical press was loud in the 
expression of the universal feeling of pleasure which the 
appointment occasioned ; and during the five years that he 
administered justice on the bench he did not disappoint the 
general expectation. Though not what is called a black-* 
letter lawyer, his great good sense and extreme desire to do 
justice, his vigorous intellect and his practical experience, his 
personal amiability and urbanity towards all, made him a 
most satisfactory judge. His career was closed by an awful 

VOL. IX. T 



274 FREDERICK THESIGER. Victoria. 

tennination. While delivering his charge to the grand jury 
at Stafford on March 13, 1854, and recommending in em- 
phatic terms a closer connection between the rich and the 
poor, he was, in the middle of an effective passage, suddenly 
struck with apoplexy, and ere a few moments had elapsed 
had gone to his great account. 

He married in 1821 the daughter of Mr. John Towell 
Rutt, a merchant of London and one of his earliest friends. 
She survived him, having brought to him a numerous 
family.* 

THESIGER, FREDERICK, Lord Chelmsford. 

Lord CHAna 1858. 

In the memoir of the last, and probably the next, lord high 
chancellor of Great Britain, I have to relate the career of 
one of the most popular members of the bar, who preserved 
when he attained his highest honours the same cordiality of 
demeanour and the same pleasant hilarity towards his former 
associates, which had distinguished him in all the previous 
grades of his professional life ; but I am compelled to observe 
that reticence of his judicial qualifications, which I have 
prescribed to myself with regard to living, and in his case 
probable future, judges. 

His family is of German origin. His paternal grandfather, 
a native of Dresden in Saxony, on coming into England was 
introduced to the Marquis of Kockingham, by whom he 
was employed as confidential amanuensis or secretary. One 
among his children was Sir Frederick Thesiger, who dis- 
tinguished himself in the navy under Lord Nelson, and took 
that gallant admiral's celebrated flag of truce on shore at 
Copenhagen in 1801. Another was Charles Thesiger, who 

> Law Magazine, No. 193; Examiner, and Athenaeum, each of the date 
March 18, 1854; &c. 



1837— FREDERICK THESIGER. 275 

went with Admiral Bentinck, when governor of St. Vincent, 
as secretary, and became successively comptroller and collector 
of customs in the island, the latter office being in those days 
highly lucrative. Besides which he obtained a grant of land 
there from the crown. He had seven children, of whom 
Frederick the future chancellor was the youngest. 

Frederick was born in London on April 15, 1794, and 
received the early part of his education at the school of 
the eminent Grecian Dr. Charles Burney, of Greenwich.* 
But his inclinations, instigated no doubt by his uncle Sir 
Frederick, turning towards the sea, he left the Grecian, and 
entered into a Naval academy at Gosport, kept by another 
Dr. Burney, equally eminent in producing good officers, as 
his namesake in producing good scholars. After a year's 
preparation, he, like his great predecessor Lord Chancellor 
Erskine, commenced his active life as a midshipman ; join- 
ing in 1807 the Cambrian frigate conunanded by the Hon. 
Charles Paget, and being present in that year at the second 
bombardment of Copenhagen, as his uncle had been at the 
first Soon afterwards, when by the death of his last sur- 
viving brother he became the heir of his father's West India 
estate, his life was considered too valuable to be risked in 
the naval service, and to his great regret his name was re- 
moved from the Navy List. After two years spent at an 
indifferent private school, he went at seventeen to St. Vin- 
cent, as he has been heard to say, ''to make his father's 
acquaintance." There after due consideration it was deter- 
mined that the young man should qualify himself for the 
bar of St. Vincent, and for that purpose should enter one 
of the Inns of Court in England, and on his return should, 
with his practice as a barrister, unite the superintendence of 
the property. 

' Dr. Charles Bamej was the uncle of the present aathor, who for a short 
time was at school with Thesiger, six or seyen years his junior. 

T 2 



276 FBEDEBICK THESIOEB. Victobia. 

The latter part of this plan was soon after defeated, hj 
the eruption of a volcano of the Souffriere mountain, at the 
foot of which the estate was situate. This event, which 
happened on April 30, 1812, totally annihilated the whole 
property, burying it under a mass of stones and ashes ; but 
though it diminished the young man's prospects, it did not 
change his legal destination. 

Betuming to England he entered into the Society of 
Gray's Inn on November 5, 1813. With the purposed 
object of eventually joining the West Indian bar, his pre- 
paration was devoted to every branch of the law, and the 
knowledge that he thus acquired was of eminent use in his 
future career. He went first to a conveyancer, then to an 
equity draughtsman, and finished his course by becoming a 
pupil of Mr. Godfrey Sykes, so often mentioned in these 
pages as an eminent special pleader. To that gentleman's 
remonstrances young Thesiger owes his establishment at the 
English bar. His master thought so well of his pupil that 
he said it was a " shame " to go back to the West Indies, 
without trying his fortune in this country. Not having the 
slightest connection with anyone likely to contribute to his 
advancement, he hesitated; but, though hopeless of success, 
decided as his kind instructor wished him. 

He was called to the bar on November 18, 1818, and 
travelled the Home circuit, joining the Surrey sessions. In 
the latter he was fortunate in getting into early busine3s, and 
in two or three years, by the senior counsel Mr. Turton 
going to India, obtained quiet possession of his position as 
leader. By the purchase of the place of one of the four 
counsel of the Palace Court, instituted in the reign of 
Charles II. for the trial of causes of small amount within 
twelve miles of the Palace of Westminster, which sat on 
every Friday throughout the year, he acquired those habits 
pf business, and that experience in conducting causes, that 



1837— FREDERICK THESIGER. 277 

few counsel have an opportunity of gaining so early in the 
superior courts. 

One of the cases on the circuit in which he highly distin- 
guished himself was as counsel for Hunt, an accessory with 
Thurtell in the murder of Mr. Weare, tried in January 
1824 ; but the case in which he obtained the greatest eclat 
while in a stuff gown, and to which he mainly attributed 
his future advance, was an ejectment against his client the 
lord of a manor, tried at Chelmsford in 1832, as to the 
right to some unenclosed strips of land by the side of the 
highway, in which, after three trials, he succeeded in esta- 
blishing his client's title. Mr. Thesiger afterwards chose his 
own title of Lord Chelmsford, in memory of this triumph. 
During this time he was obtaining very considerable em- 
ployment in Westminster Hall, and evidently commanding 
the ear of the judges. The author of these pages was him- 
self present on two occasions, when Chief Justice Abbott 
highly complimented him to the jury on his management of 
cases which he had been called upon to lead in the absence 
of his senior. 

In the year 1834 he was made king's counsel, and for 
the next ten years he remained the leader of his circuit. 
Amidst the variety of causes in which a leading counsel must 
be engaged, many no doubt would make interesting and 
entertaining additions to the *^ Romance of the Forum ;" and 
one in which Mr. Thesiger succeeded in absolving his client 
from an unjust claim after no less than five verdicts against 
him, would form a remarkable illustration of legal ingenuity. 
But such details are foreign to the object of this work. 

In the year 1840 Mr. Thesiger entered into the political 
arena as member for Woodstock, having been previously 
unsuccessful in a contest with Sir Thomas Wilde (afterwards 
Lord Truro), then solicitor-general, for the representation of 
Newark. 



278 FREDERICK THESIGER. VxcTOBii. 

After twenty-six years of continued labour, Mr. Thesiger, 
on April 15, 1844, was selected by Sir Bobert Peel's 
government to bo the solicitor-general, in the place of Sir 
AVilliam FoUett who became attomey-generaL With this 
eminent man and extraordinary advocate, who was as remark- 
able for his legal acquirements and his effective eloquence as 
for the charm of his manner and the music of his voice, 
^fn Thesiger (who was knighted soon afler his promotion) 
would have been delighted to act as a subordinate. But the 
health of his leader, broken down by too intense exertions in 
his profession, soon after obliged him to quit England, and 
to leave the solicitor-general, quite a novice in the duties of 
hLs own office, to encounter the work of both. This he 
successfully performed for above ten months, and it is 
pleasing to record the generous and ready assistance he 
received from his old political opponent Sir Thomas Wilde, 
who voluntarily offered and kindly gave the aid of his 
experience, when he saw the difficult position in which Sir 
Frederick was placed. On Sir William Follett's death. Sir 
Frederick was appointed attorney-general on June 29, 1845; 
and retained the office till July 3, 1846, when he retired 
with the ministry of Sir Robert Peel, on the occasion of 
the repeal of the com laws. 

Two days after his resignation Lord Chief Justice Tindal 
died ; and thus Sir Frederick lost the succession to the vacant 
scat, which would have fallen to him as of course had the death 
occurred a few days before. It was naturally given by the 
new ministry to their attorney-general Sir Thomas Wilde. 
That ministry remained in power for nearly six years, 
during which Sir Frederick resumed his former leading 
position at the bar without office. When they were in turn 
defeated, Sir Frederick was restored to his previous office on 
February 27, 1852, but only held it till December 28 in 
that year, his party being again obliged to retire ; and then 



1837— FREDERICK THESIGER. 279 

again he returned into the ranks as a private barrister, for 
the next six years employed in all the great cases which 
occupied the attention of the public. 

Among the " causes celebres " in which he was engaged 
during the last decade of his forensic career, was the famous 
attempt of a Miss Smith to charge the Earl of Ferrers with 
breach of promise of marriage, in which Sir Frederick's 
speech in defence of the earl, exposing the fraud and forgery 
by which the charge was supported, was considered so 
eloquent and effective, that one of his most distinguished 
colleagues, since a chief justice, is said to have declared to 
him that he would rather have made that speech than 
any he had ever heard at the bar. Another remarkable 
case in which Sir Frederick was equally successful, was in 
exposing a man who pretended to be the son of Sir Hugh 
Smyth, and to be entitled to vast estates in Gloucester- 
shire and other counties. There the benefit of the electric 
telegraph was fully exemplified, as well as the advantage 
of the publication of legal proceedings, for in the interval 
between the two days of trial, a full confirmation of the 
plaintiff's villany was communicated to the defendant's 
counsel, and the perjured claimant, instead of gaining pos- 
session of his coveted estates, ended his life in prison. 

Sir Frederick was not only ingenious and eloquent in the 
conduct of his cases, he enlivened them also with his witty 
repartees. Of these it is difficult to give specimens because 
they applied mostly to local circumstances, or were conveyed 
in professional diction. One however may be recorded as 
an apt example. He was opposed by a learned serjeant, who 
in his examination of his witnesses was very irregular in put- 
ting leading questions. Sir Frederick remonstrating appealed 
to the judge, on which the learned serjeant said, " I have a 
right to deal with my witnesses as I please ; " *^ Yes," said 
Sir Frederick, " he may deal, my lord, but he must not leadJ^ 



280 FREDEBICK THESIGER. Victoria. 

In his parliamentary career he was a firm supporter of the 
Conservative party. In 1844 he exchanged Woodstock for 
Abingdon^ and in 1852 he was returned for Stamford, for 
which ho sat till he was raised to the peerage. His Mend- 
ship with Sir Kobert Peel continued till the death of that 
distinguished statesman, by whose side he was seated when 
he made his last speech. Sir Frederick on some occasions 
after the repeal of the com laws found himself obliged to 
oppose Sir Robert when giving support to some of the 
measures of the Whig ministry, and joined what is called the 
Protectionist party, from which the Peelites became after the 
death of their leader more and more widely separated. 

On Lord Derby coming into office for the second time. 
Sir Frederick was raised from the rank of a barrister to the 
head of the law. The Great Seal was delivered to him as 
lord chancellor on February 26, 1858, and on the next 
day he was called to the House of Lords as Baron Chelmsford. 
His qualifications for and his merits in the performance of the 
duties of that high office I have bound myself not to notice. 
He held it for only sixteen months, and resigned it on June 
18, 1859, on the break-up of Lord Derby's ministry. As a 
privy counsellor and a peer of parliament he has since kept 
his habits of business in full practice by devoting himself 
most assiduously to the hearing of appeals. 

Among the congratulations which he received on his 
promotion, the address of the Incorporated Law Society, 
whose standing counsel he had been for the last thirteen 
years, must have given him peculiar pleasure, as proving 
that the esteem in which he was held was not confined to 
his brethren of the bar, but was extended over both branches 
of the profession. It contained the following passage: 
" The council, and they believe the profession at large, 
rejoice to perceive in the elevation of your lordship to the 
highest official dignity in the power of the Crown to bestow. 



1837— NICOLAS CONYNGHAM TINDAL. 281 

the appropriate termination of a long and distinguished 
career, in which — ^unaided by the accidents of fortune — 
brilliant abilities, united to unwearied industry, — unsullied 
honour, and spotless integrity, — the firm, fearless, and 
dignified maintenance of the rights, the honour, and the 
independence of the profession, joined to a courtesy which 
never failed, and which knew no distinction of rank or 
station, — have at length achieved their just and fitting 
reward.'' To this affectionate testimonial Lord Chelmsford 
returned a most graceful and feeling reply. 

In 1822 he married the daughter of William Tinling, Esq., 
and niece of Major Peirson, who lost his life in defending 
the island of Jersey. Of his issue by her he has seven 
surviving children, four sons and three daughters. . The 
eldest son is a colonel in the army, and distinguished 
himself at Sebastopol and in India : and one of his daughters 
is the widow of Major-General Sir John Eardley Wilmot 
Inglis, K.C.B., celebrated for his gallant defence of the 
Residence at Lucknow, who died from the consequences of 
his exertions there. 



TINDAL, NICOLAS CONYNGHAM. 

Ch. C. p. 1837. 
See under the Reigns of George lY. and William IV. 

Though heralds usually contrive to trace the descent of a 
new-made peer from some royal or illustrious stock, they 
are not often employed for that object by a commoner. Sir 
Nicolas Conyngham Tindal had no such ambition, and was 
satisfied with his relationship to two distinguished men, the 
Rev. Dr. Matthew Tindal, and the Rev. Nicholas Tindal, 
who both made themselves names in the literary world by 
the works they produced. One of the family, however, not 



2S2 NICOLAS CONYNGHAM TINDAL, Victoria. V 

content with their reputation, deduced a pedigree, com- 
mencing with no less a personage than Henry, seventh 
emperor of Germany, and father of John, earl of Luxem- 
burgh and king of Bohemia, slain at the battle of Cressy in 
1 346, whose daughter married Kobert de Tindale of Tansover 
in Northumberland, of the family of Adam de Tindale who 
lived in the reign of King John. The pedigree includes 
many knights of high degree, and also the marriage, among 
others, with the daughters of two judges. Sir William 
Yelverton and Sir Humphrey Coningsby, and then proceeds 
to the name of Dr. Matthew Tindal the author of '^ Chris- 
tianity as old as the Creation," and many other political and 
controversial works.' 

The doctor's nephew, the Rev. Nicholas Tindal, chaplain 
of Greenwich Hospital, rector of Alverstoke in Hampshire, 
and of Colbome in the Isle of Wight, and vicar of Waltham 
in Essex, was the translator and continuator of Rapin's 
History of England. His second son George, a captain in 
the Royal Navy, was the father of Robert Tindal an attomey- 
at-law living at Coval Hall near Chelmsford, who by his 
wife Sarah, only daughter of John Pocock of Greenwich 
Hospital, had three sons, the youngest of whom went into 
the naval service, and the other two adopted the profession 
of the law, the eldest son being the subject of the present 
sketch, and the second acquiring great provincial fame as an 
attorney at Aylesbury, and clerk of the peace for the county 
of Bucks. By various intermarriages of the family the 
chief justice might claim connection and descent from 
many legal celebrities, as well as from other eminent men ; 
among them are the following judges : John Hall, Lewis 
Fortescue, and Roger Manwood, whose names have been 
already recorded in these pages. 

* Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, ix. 302. 



1837— ;^fICOLAS CONYNGHAM TINDAL. 283 

Nicolas Conyngham Tindal was bom at Coval Hall on 
December 12, 1776. The first part of his education he 
received at a school at Chelmsford, from whence he was 
removed in 1795 to Trinity College, Cambridge. His career 
at the university was most creditable, terminating with the 
honourable place of eighth wrangler on taking his bachelor's 
degree in 1799, to which was added the distinction of 
obtaining the senior chancellor's medal. He proceeded 
M. A. in 1802, and was elected fellow of his college. Having 
entered Lincoln's Inn, he became a pupil of Mr. (afterwards 
Judge) Kichardson, and soon after commenced the practice 
of a special pleader. In this branch he exhibited an extra- 
ordinary capacity, and acquired such a character, that 
business flowed in upon him to a considerable extent. He 
was so successful that in 1809 he felt himself able not only 
to be called to the bar, but to give up his fellowship by 
entering into the marriage state. His bride was Merelina, 
youngest daughter of Thomas Symonds, Esq., captain in the 
Royal Navy, and sister of Admiral Sir William Symonds, 
C.B., surveyor of the Navy. 

«He selected the Northern circuit, where, and in West- 
minster Hall, the reputation he had already gained below 
the bar in no long time secured him a sufficiency of 
employment. His chambers were resorted to by many 
pupils, among whom were the present Lords Brougham and 
Wensleydale. His knowledge of law and his reasoning 
talent soon had abundant exercise in the most difficult 
questions submitted to him; and though not gifted with 
great rhetorical powers he was remarkable for the logical 
skill with which he argued them. Among the important 
cases entrusted to him was that of Ashford against 
Thornton,* which was an appeal of murder, when on the 

' 1 Bamcwall and Aldcrson, 405. 



284 NICOLAS CONYNGHAM TINDAL. Victoria. 

part of the appellee he claimed the wager of battle, and 
succeeded by his recondite argument on this most abstruse 
law in saving his client. The discussion arising from this 
case had the happj effect of producing an enactment (stat. 
59 Geo. III. c. 46) abolishing the oppressive proceeding of 
appeal for murder, treason, or felony, and the absurd method 
of proving innocence by a trial by battle. Another argument 
by which Mr. Tindal gained high approbation was in the 
case of the Deccan prize-money, before the Lords of the 
Treasury. With such a prestige it is not surprising that he 
should have been selected in 1820, by the recommendation of 
his former pupil Lord Brougham, as one of the counsel for 
Queen Caroline, in the conduct of whose defence, his learn- 
ing, caution, and sagacity were of most material assistance. 

Though he shared in the popularity that attended the 
queen's advisers on her temporary triumph, he did not lose 
the interest felt for him by the prime minister. Lord 
Liverpool, who indeed had endeavoured, but had been too 
late, to retain him for the Crown. That nobleman took the 
opportunity of the promotion of Sir Charles Wetherell to 
the attorney-generalship to appoint Mr. Tindal, who had not 
yet had the precedence of a silk gown, solicitor-general on 
September 20, 1826, when he received the usual honour of 
knighthood. 

Sir Nicolas had already entered the political arena two 
years before as member for "Wigton, which in 1826 he ex- 
changed for Harwich; but in the following year he vacated 
that seat to become a candidate for the representation of his 
university, and having succeeded he continued its member 
till he was raised to the bench. In parliament he exhibited 
all those solid qualities for which as a barrister he was 
distinguished, never pushing himself forward in party 
contests, but always assisting the debates by his legal and 
historical acquirements. 



1887— NICOLAS CONYNGHAM TINDAL. 285 

He held the office of solicitor-general from September 
1826 to June 1829, during which time there were two 
vacancies in the post of attorney-general. The first was 
occasioned by the retirement of Sir Charles Wetherell in 
1827, on his opposition to the Boman Catholic claims, when 
Sir Nicolas with characteristic modesty gave way to Sir 
James Scarlett; and the other was when Sir Charles 
Wetherell resumed his place under the administration of the 
Duke of Wellington in 1828. In the next year, however, 
he received his reward. On the retirement of Chief Justice 
Best, Sir Nicolas was immediately appointed to supply the 
vacancy at the head of the Common Pleas^ and from June 9, 
1829, he presided over the court for seventeen years, with 
that grave urbanity, calm dignity, and invariable good 
temper, which completely repressed the indecent ebullitions 
which had too often been lately exhibited, and with that 
legal erudition and sound exposition of the principles on 
which his decisions were founded, which commanded the 
approval and acquiescence of both his learned and unlearned 
auditory. 

In the ordinary and vulgar sense of popularity he was 
certainly not a popular judge, for he sided with no party, 
and professed none of the opinions which attract the million. 
But no judge was ever looked up to or respected more than 
he was. There was an indescribable something about his 
manner that induced not merely the agreement but the 
perfect confidence, that engaged not merely the admiration 
but the afiection of those with whom he associated or con- 
versed; while his courteous and amiable afiability invited 
friendship, the habitual gravity of his deportment prevented 
undue familiarity, and few could approach him without 
feeling a sort of filial respect and regard. Yet beneath this 
exterior he greatly enjoyed a joke, and many examples of a 
quiet dry wit are related of him. His professional ones were 



286 NICOLAS CONYNtJHAM TINDAL. Victobia. 

the best. One of the learned Berjeants coming too late for 
dinner at Serjeants' Inn Ilall found no place left for him. 
While waiting for a seat, " How now," said the chief justice, 
'^ what's the matter, brother ? You look like an outstanding 
term that's unsatisfied." Of another Serjeant he was asked 
whether he thought him a sound lawyer. *' Well, sir," said 
he, ^^ you raise a doubtful point, whether roaring is unsound- 
ness." When another stormy leader was addressing a jury 
in the civil court at Buckingham, he spoke so loud that the 
chief justice, who was delivering his charge in the criminal 
court, inquired what that noise was. On being informed 

that Serjeant was opening a case. " Very well," sidd 

he, *^ since Brother is opening ^ I must shut up; " and 

immediately ordered the doors between the two courts to be 
closed. The following, though not strictly professional, will 
perhaps be deemed quite as good. When Lady Kolle, on 
her husband's death, refused to let the hounds go out, a 
learned serjeant asked the chief justice whether there would 
be any harm if they were allowed to do so with a piece of 
crape round their necks ? '^ I can hardly think," said Sir 
Nicolas, " that even the crape is necessary; it ought. surely 
to have been sufficient that they were in full cryJ" 

His useful life was terminated on July 6, 1846, after a 
short illness. In the choice of his successor were exemplified 
the slight accidents upon which the good or bad fortune of a 
man turns. Had Sir Nicolas died two days earlier. Sir 
Frederick Thesiger, then the attorney-general, would have 
been undoubtedly appointed chief justice ; but Lord John 
Bussell having become prime minister instead of Sir Robert 
Feel, inunediately nominated his own attorney-general Sir 
Thomas Wilde to the place. Both however of these can- 
didates afterwards gained possession of the Great Seal, as 
Lord Chelmsford and Lord Truro. 

By his wife he had three sons and one daughter. 



1837— GEORGE. JAMES TURNER. 287 

TRURO, LORD. See T. WILDE. 
TURNER, GEORGE JAMES. 

y. C. 1851. Lord Just. 1853. 

Sir George James Turner is the second of the present 
lords justices of appeal in Chancery, and is one of those 
modest and retiring persons, who owe their prosperity to no 
extraordinary incident in their lives, nor to any political or 
extraneous interest, but simply to their honest efforts to do 
their duty in that state of life to which it has pleased God 
to call them. Little therefore can be recorded to render his 
biography interesting, beyond the important lesson, that a 
steady reliance on Providence will bless all human exertions, 
when accompanied by integrity of purpose and persistent 
and intellectual industry. 

Sir George was one of a large family, and was born in 
1798 at Great Yarmouth, where his father, the Rev. Eichard 
Turner, B.D., was for thirty years the minister. 

His education was commenced at the Charter House (where 
he is now a governor), and finished at Pembroke College, 
Cambridge, of which his uncle. Dr. Joseph Turner, dean of 
Norwich, was then master, by obtaining the distinction of a 
wrangler's place in 1819; and soon after being elected to a 
fellowship there. He had previously entered the society of 
Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in July 1821, 
first preparing himself by becoming a pupil to Mr. Pepys 
(afterwards Lord Cottenham). Attaching himself to the 
court of Chancery, he worked diligently and successfully 
for nineteen years as a junior; when in 1840 he was 
honoured with a silk gown. During the next eleven years 
his energies were brought more into play as well in his 
legitimate court of the Bolls, and in cases of appeal, as in 
the House of Lords and in the judicial committee of the 



288 JOHN VAUGHAN, Victoria. 

Privy Council, In the latter he had particularly dis- 
tinguished himself by his elaborate and triumphant argument 
for the Rev. Mr. Gorham^ the appellant^ against a decision 
of the Bishop of Exeter. 

From 1847 to 1851 he sat in the House of Commons as 
member for the city of Coventry. So conspicuous were his 
legal attainments^ and so peculiarly qualified was he allowed 
to be for a judicial position^ that on April 2, 185 1^ he was 
selected as one of the vice-chancellors^ on the retirement of 
Sir James Wigram ; and was then knighted, and placed on 
the Privy Council. Two years afterwards when Lord 
Cranworth became lord chancellor. Sir George was promoted 
to his place of lord justice of the court of Appeal in 
Chancery, on January 10, 1853, as the colleague of Sir 
James Lewis Knight-Bruce. By their united administra- 
tion of justice, in the necessarily difficult cases they have to 
decide, so much satisfaction has been given both to the 
suitors and to the bar, that when a change takes place by 
the removal of either of them, the deepest regret will be felt 
by all. 

By his marriage with Louisa, one of the daughters of 
Edward Jones, Esq., of Brackley in Northamptonshire, 
Sir George has a family of six sons and three daughters. 



VAUGHAN, JOHN. 

Just. C. P. 1837. 

See nnder the Reigns of George IV. and William IV. 

SiE John Vaughan was of a different lineage, as well as 
of a different character, from that of his namesake the chief 
justice in the reign of. Charles II. The old chief justice 
was of Welsh extraction and a native of Cardiganshire; 
the modern judge was an Englishman by descent and a 



1837— JOHN VAUGHAN. 289 

native of the county of Leicester. He was the second of five 
sons of Dr. James Vaughan, a physician at Leicester, and of 
Hester daughter of John Sinalley, alderman of that borough, 
and granddaughter of Sir Kichard Halford, the fifth baronet 
of that name. Three of the judge's brothers became eminent 
in their respective professions : the eldest, Henry, was the 
distinguished court physician in the reigns of the four last 
sovereigns, being honoured with a baronetcy in 1809, and 
assuming the name and arms of Halford in 1814, on suc- 
ceeding to the Halford estates; the third son, Peter, rose 
to be dean of Chester, and the fourth son. Sir Charles 
Kichard, was employed as our envoy extraordinary to the 
United States. 

Sir John was bom in 1768, and was educated at West- 
minster School; from which, without going to either uni- 
versity, he entered at once into the study of the law at 
Lincoln's Inn, and was called to the bar in Trinity Term 
1791. He chose the Midland circuit, and by his agreeable 
manners and good connection speedily succeeded. His 
advance was rapid: first he was elected recorder of his 
native place, Leicester, and in 1799 he took the degree of 
serjeant-at-law. During the next twenty-eight years he 
had an immense business, which he owed less to his legal 
acquirements than to his fluency of speech and the energy 
and pertinacity which he always displayed for his clients. 
In fact, he was not deeply learned in the science, and knew 
little of the law of real property. But he was industrious 
and painstaking, and though his manner was somewhat 
boisterous, his addresses to the jury were humorous and 
effective. 

For his subsequent advances, in 1814 as solicitor, and in 
1816 as attorney-general to Queen Charlotte, in the same 
year as king's serjeant, and lastly on February 24, 1827, as 
a baron of the Exchequer in the place of Sir Robert 

VOL. IX. u 



290 WILLIAM HENRY WATSON. Victobia. 

Graham, he was no doubt greatly indebted to the influence 
of hi8 brother, the royal physician ; and when he received 
the latter appointment the bar joke was, that no one had a 
better title to it, as he was a judge by prescription. After 
sitting in the Exchequer for seven years he exchanged on 
April 29, 1 834, with Sir Edward Alderson into the Common 
Pleas, and was at the same time honoured with a seat in the 
Privy Council. In his new court he remained till his 
sudden death in September 1839, of a heart complaint. As 
a judge he was much respected for his kind and gentlemanly 
demeanour, and though not pretending to any superior legal 
knowledge, his good sense, patience, impartiality and care, 
enabled him to perform his judicial functions very satis- 
factorily. 

He was married twice. His first wife was Augusta, 
daughter of Henry Beauchamp, twelfth Lord St John of 
Bletsoe, who died in childbed in 1813 ; and his second was 
Louisa, daughter of Sir Charles William Rouse Broughton, 
Bart, and widow of St Andrew, thirteenth Lord St John, 
who survived him. 



WATSON, WILLIAM HENRY. 

B. E. 1856. 

Sir William Henry Watson is one of those judges, 
whose judicial life during the last ten years has been sud- 
denly terminated either by disease or death, within a very 
short period from their appointment He was born at Bam- 
borough in 1796, and when only fifteen years old became 
a soldier ; being the son of Captain John Watson of the 76th 
foot, upon whose early death the Duke of York gave his 
son a commission in the 1st royal dragoons in 1811. In the 
next year he became a lieutenant, and exchanging into the 



1837-- WILLIAM HENRY WATSON. 291 

6th dragoons shared in the glories of the Peninsular war, and 
in the crowning victory of Waterloo. His entry into Paris 
with the allied army very shortly preceded his retirement 
from the service, as the peace which followed promised no 
active occupation. 

He then determined to adopt the legal profession, and 
entering Lincoln's Inn In 1817 he pursued the study so 
diligently that he soon made himself competent to commence 
business as a special pleader. He continued in this labori- 
ous branch of practice for a great number of years with 
continually increasing success, till at last in 1832 he felt it 
necessary both for his health and the prospect of advance- 
ment to be called to the bar. During the interval he 
published two books, one " On Arbitration" in 1825, and 
the other on '' The Office aud Duties of Sheriff" In 1827, the 
excellence and usefulness of which have been proved by 
their being frequently reprinted. Both on the Northern 
circuit, which he joined, and in London, his previous repu- 
tation secured to him full employment ; which increased so 
much that in 1843 he felt justified in accepting a silk gown. 
As a leader he was most successful by his hearty and forcible 
style of address ; and by his friendly disposition and cordial 
bonhomie he was most popular among his companions on the 
circuit. 

In the meantime he had entered parliament in 1841, as 
member for Kinsale, and sat for that borough till 1847 ; and 
afterwards in 1854 was elected for Hull, and continued its 
member till he was raised to the bench. That event did not 
occur till November 1856, when he was constituted a baron 
of the Exchequer in the place of Sir Thomas Piatt His 
judicial career was not of long duration. On the spring 
circuit of 1860 he had opened the commission at Welshpool 
on March 12, and had just concluded his charge to the 
grand jury, when he was seized with apoplexy, and very 

U 2 




292 WILLIAM WIGHTMAN, VicroBiA. 

shortly after breathed his last ; an awful visitation, coinciding 
remarkably in time and circumstance with the fate of Mr. 
Justice Talfourd at StaflTord exactly six years before, 

He married, first, a sister of Sir William Armstrong, the 
inventor of the new artillery; and secondly, Mary, the 
daughter of Anthony Capron, Esq. (who afterwards took 
the name of IToUist), of Lodsworth near Petworth in 
Sussex. 



WENSLEYDALE, LORD. See J. Parke. 

WESTBURY, LORD. See R Bethell. 

WIGHTMAN, WILLIAM. 

JuBT. Q. R 1841. 

Sir William Wightman is the last judge whose loss the 
profession has had to lament, his death having occurred onlj 
three months before these slight memorials of him were 
penned. He was of Scottish extraction, his family having 
been long established in Dumfriesshire. He was born in that 
county in 1785. 

After entering University College, Oxford, he was elected 
to a Michell fellowship at Queen's College, and took his 
degree of M. A. Becoming then a student in Lincoln's Inn, 
he practised for some years as a special pleader before he was 
called to the bar. On taking that step in 1821, the reputation 
he had already acquired ensured him at an early period a 
very considerable business. His character for solid legal 
learning may be estimated by his being employed for ten or 
twelve years as the assistant of the attorney-generals of the 
day, in the oflSce of junior counsel of the Treasury, a post 
familiarly designated as that officer's " devil," and requiring 
a qualification which eminently belonged to him — that of the 
most unerring accuracy and precision. This also led to his 



>837— WILLIAM WIGHTMAN. 293* 

appointment as one of the commissioners for inquiring into 
the practice and proceedings of the common law courts in 
1830 ; and in 1833 in another commission for digesting the 
criminal law. 

With such antecedents his ultimate promotion, whether 
from the outer or inner bar, was certain. It took place from 
the former in February 1841, on the resignation of Sir Joseph 
Littledale, whose place as a judge of the Queen's Bench he 
was deemed the most competent to supply. He was there- 
upon knighted. The selection was more than justified: 
during the period of nearly three-and-twenty years in which 
he sat in that court, notwithstanding his exalted position, and 
the high estimation in which he must have been conscious 
that he was held, he never lost that innate modesty for 
which from the first he was distinguished. To his profound 
knowledge of the law, he added those judicial qualities of 
patience in listening, discrimination in judging, and clearness 
in explaining, which are so essential and becoming on the 
bench. 

His labours and his life were suddenly terminated at York 
on December 10, 1863, by an attack of apoplexy, while 
attending the Northern circuit; being the third judge who 
has during the reign closed his career while in the exercise 
of his duties at the assizes ; the two others being Mr. Justice 
Talfourd and Mr. Baron Watson. 

He married in 1819 (two years before he was called to the 
bar) the daughter of James Baird, Esq., of Lasswade near 
Edinburgh. 

It is with pride and pleasure that I am permitted to append 
to this slight memoir a letter from one of Sir William 
Wightman's former feUow-labourers on the bench. The 
elegant and affectionate style of the writer will be recognised 
by many of my readers, who cannot fail to remark that in the 
amiable character and the judicial excellence which he justly 



294 WILLIAM WIGIITMAN. Victoria. 

attributes to his friend he has unconsciously delineated 
his own. 

•* July 25, 1864. 

** My dear Sir, — I have delayed the fulfilment of my 
promise to you respecting my late colleague and friend Mr. 
Justice Wightman longer than I intended — in great measure 
because the considering it with a view to its fulfilment has 
convinced me that it was somewhat rashly made. Much, 
indeed, might be said respecting him by one competent to 
the task, and of an int/cresting character both to lawyers and 
to general readers ; but it might be hardly suitable to the 
plan of your work ; and his professional career, though one 
of uninterrupted success, and, for the part of it during which 
he was a judge, of eminent utility to the public, was not an 
eventful one : it was a stream flowing on to its close with 
increasing volume, but without breaks, without falls, without 
overflows. 

** He and I were not on the same circuit, when at the bar ; 
but we sate in the same row in court, and I had sufficient 
opportunity to form a high opinion of his great legal know- 
ledge and practical ability, both as a special pleader and 
advocate. It so happened that we were engaged on the 
same side in the prosecutions which grew out of the Bristol 
Riots, and were conducted under a special commission ; and 
also in the informations against the mayor and aldermen 
of Bristol which followed. Gradually there grew up between 
us a good deal of friendly feeling and familiar intercourse. 
He was a most agreeable companion. I do not think that he 
could be said, at the time I speak of, to have done his intellect 
full justice in the way of literary cultivation. It might be 
owing to his genuine modesty and very undemonstrative 
character ; he certainly, however, did not show at that time 
much of general reading or scholarship in his talk ; but he 
Was full of information and anecdote, and a rich vein of 



1337— WILLIAM WIGHTMAN. 295 

humour ran through all his conversation— humour, as indeed 
it commonly is, quite untranslatable, which no narrative can 
give an adequate idea of, and removed the farther from 
common appreciation, but the more racy to professional 
hearers, from its very commonly clothing itself in quaint 
professional diction. I was raised to the bench some years 
before him; and when I went upon the Northern circuit 
as judge, I found him nearly, if not quite, the first junior 
and engaged in nearly every important case. To this position 
he clung, seemingly having no desire for the distinction 
of a silk gown, and certainly very averse to that which 
ambitious juniors are said sometimes to covet — the being 
called on to lead a cause owing to the unexpected absence 
of his leader. He desired no such opportunities of dis- 
tinction. I remember in vain putting on him all the pressure 
fairly in my power upon an occasion at Liverpool when 
we were dividing the causes, and trying them at the same 
time in two courts. I wished him to lead a cause, but he 
resolutely declined. No one doubted that in the majority of 
causes he would have led with exquisite judgment, or that 
he would have exercised a powerful influence over a jury. 
With this disposition and these unquestioned qualifications, 
he did not covet promotion, and remained with a stuff gown 
on his back, until, in the spring of 1841, Mr. Justice Lit- 
tledale resigned, and he was, with the universal approbation 
of the profession, called by Lord Chancellor Cottenham to 
fill his place. Few men, perhaps, at that time would have 
been reckoned equal to the retiring judge in the knowledge 
of the common law ; but Wightman was a successful student 
in the same school, and he brought with him a greater know- 
ledge of mankind and habits of a more prompt decision. The 
duties which he now entered on he continued to discharge to 
the last day of his life ; and it is not merely the exaggeration 
of a friend to say that he did so with ever-increasing satisfaction 



296 WILLIAM WIOUTMAX. Victobia. 

to the public. As at the bar^ so on the bench^ be was never 
a volunteer of labour which it was not his duty to under- 
take, nor covetous of any occasional distinction; but he 
shrank from no labour which the discharge of his duty called 
on him to undertake ; and whenever circumstances compelled 
him to be prominent, he was found to fill the post with ease 
and dignity of manner, as well as simplicity. He had, of 
course, often to prepare written judgments for himself, and 
not seldom for the court : he did this with great care, in a 
clear style, and with a very lucid arrangement. Generally^ 
indeed almost universally^ he commenced with a statement 
of what he considered to be the facts, that, as he said, it 
might at all events appear on what he decided ; he arranged 
his authorities, or stated his principles of decision, and then 
drew the conclusion. I have always considered them as 
models of that class of composition ; and his reasoning faculty 
was so sound, that he did not often miss a logical conclu- 
sion ; to use a professional expression, he was eminently * a 
safe judge.' He never exceeded in length ; indeed, it might 
have been well if one so competent had on some occasions 
travelled wider afield, and illustrated his decision of the 
matter in hand by analosdes, of which his leamins^ would 
have furnished h^ with apt and striking instancL He 
served with three chief justices in succession, and I believe 
there was no one of them who did not feel and gratefully 
acknowledge the value of his effective assistance — always 
zealously and never ostentatiously rendered. 

**When he sat alone at Nisi Prius, or in the trial of 
criminal cases, it was in a good sense a great judicial display 
— always careful as to his appearance and dress, dignified 
without the slightest ostentation, very courteous, yet very 
firm, quiet, saying little, but that little very pointedly, in 
the course of the cause, very attentive, and losing nothing ; 
disposing of points as they arose, shortly, and with ease and 



1837— WILLIAM WIQHTMAN. 297 

distinctness ; presenting the question, and the circumstances 
as they bore on it, to the jury with the greatest precision, 
and inevitably making them feel entire confidence in his 
impartiality. The man who had a good cause, or the inno- 
cent prisoner, rejoiced that he had him for the judge ; while 
he against whom the verdict passed, felt at least the satis- 
faction that no favourable point had been overlooked or 
undervalued, nothing adverse exaggerated or unduly pressed. 
Yet, with all this mastery over the position, what we call 
anxious cases — cases of great length or complication, or 
those which might end in capital punishment — did make 
him very anxious ; and to those who were near him on such 
occasions there were sometimes — outbreaks they can hardly 
be called, but slight outpourings of querulousness, free from 
ill-temper, and at which no one was more ready to smile 
than himself when the cause had passed away. 

** I saw him for the last time, I think, on November 29, 
1863, when he called on me, just before he started on that 
circuit from which he was never to return. He had walked 
a considerable distance from his own house in Eaton Place; 
and he was about to walk home, making other visits by the 
way. He had then nearly completed his eightieth year; yet 
he looked fresh and firm, walked uprightly, saw and heard 
perfectly, and was in the full vigour of his mental faculties. 
As we parted, I reminded him of the last winter circuit at 
York, on which we had been together, and how we had then 
both agreed that that should be our last. He only smiled, 
and we parted without a foreboding on either side. He 
found at York a heavy calendar, and from the beginning it 
seemed to oppress him more than was usually the case. We 
are apt, after an event of importance has happened, to recol- 
lect slight circumstances and casual expressions which, if 
nothing had happened, we should have forgotten or thought 
quite immaterial. It is remembered now that the chaplain 



298 WILLIAM WIQHTMAN. Victoria. 

had omitted to mention him in the bidding prayer before 
hifl assize sermon. * There was no one in the minster/ said 
he after the service, * who more needed the prayers of the 
people than the judge who has this list of prisoners to 
dispose of.' 

" On the last day of his life he was in court early, and 
tried a complicated case, which lasted the whole day: it was 
one which excited much interest in the county, and the hall 
was crowded. He felt oppressed ; but this did not appear to 
the audience, who listened with admiration to a masterly 
summing up of the long evidence -t- with admiration not 
unmixed with wonder to see such vigour of intellect and 
clearness of recollection, supported by such activity of the 
bodily faculties, at such an advanced age. But it was the 
bright burning of the taper before its sinking into darkness. 
He returned to his lodgings, where, happUy for himself and for 
her. Miss Wightman was waiting for him. The father and the 
child passed the evening quietly together. He complained 
a little of his work overcoming him,, and spoke cheerAilly of 
resignation and rambling on the Continent. He talked much 
and with overflowing affection of the different members of 
his family. So the evening passed, and he retired to his 
room. There was just enough in his tone and maimer to 
excite a little imeasiness, and it is said that Miss Wightman 
made an excuse some time after to tap at his door and inquire 
how he was. He answered cheerfully, but he never rose 
from his bed : the old man's strength, it should seem, had 
been too severely tried, and he sank on the following day. 

" It may well be supposed how awfully and sadly the 
news broke on the crowded city of York. That a man at 
his time of life should pass away without note of warning 
might seem not extraordinary ; but it is remarkable, that old 
as he was, nothing in his appearance or manner called up 
associations with the approach of death. Even to his nearest 



1837— WILLIAM WIGHTMAN. 299 

friends and relations the event came with the shock of 
surprise; and here the bar, the jury, the witnesses, the 
crowd of interested spectators, had seen him last, and but 
the day before, on the judgment-seat, administering justice 
with the vigour and clearness of a man in the prime of life 
— with the wisdom and consideration, but without a shadow 
of the weakness of old age. It may be tnily said that the 
feeling of surprise was not greater or more universal than 
that of regret. Not in the first moment, but after time 
allowed for consideration, which only added substance to the 
feeling, a meeting was held, and it was resolved to place a 
window in the minster in commemoration of his public 
services, his private virtues, and the sorrow of his friends 
and the public for the loss they had sustained. 

« I am not writing my friend's eulogy, nor attempting to 
describe at full his character ; nor must I venture to lift up 
the veil, which must remain drawn before the long hap- 
pinesses and sacred sorrows of domestic life, though it shuts 
out from respectful and loving admiration the best parts, it 
may be, of a good man's character. It is enough to say, 
that he left a widow who has to be thankful for nearly half 
a century of unbroken harmony and happiness, and four 
daughters and numerous grandchildren, the objects of his 
constant affection and care. Life must to them be changed 
indeed ; but it may safely be hoped that she and they will 
all be supported under their great affliction by His hand, 
who has ordained it for them. 

*^ I am afraid I have been led to do what, at the outset, I 
prepared you for my carefully avoiding ; and perhaps I have 
written what should have no place in your book : but you will 
consider over how many years of friendly and intimate inter- 
course my memory wanders, and that he who can look back 
80 far can hardly have escaped the infirmity to which length 
of days is most liable. 



300 JAMES WIGBAM. Victobia. 

** I sometimes tbink^ with regret^ that had he timely spared 
the unusual strength which was vouchsafed to him^ and 
retired some few years since to labours less exhausting 
than those of the common-law bench, he might now be 
among us, conferring happiness on his family, and real 
benefits on the public. But such regrets are as unwise 
as they are imavailing. He lived happy in the course he 
pursued, and he died as I think he would have wished to 
die — his loins girded, his harness on his back, in the faithful 
and conscientious discharge of his duty. 

** I remain, my dear Sir, 

" Yours, &C.'' 

WIGRAM, JAMES. 

ViCE-CHAHa 1841. 

Br the failure of health and the ultimate total blindness of 
Sir James Wigram, the law has been too early deprived of 
the services of one of the ablest and most philosophical judges 
of the present reign. In his enforced retirement he enjoys 
the sympathy and affectionate regards of all who are, or have 
been, connected with him ; as, while on the bench, he com- 
manded the respect and admiration of those who could 
appreciate his judicial powers. 

Sir James Wigram is of Irish extraction : his father was 
Irish ; his paternal grandfather, John Wigram of Wexford, 
and his paternal grandmother, Mary daughter of Robert 
Clifford of Wexford, were also Irish. His father. Sir Robert 
Wigram, was bom at Wexford, and settling in England 
became one of the most eminent of its merchants. In 1805 
he was honoured with a baronetcy, which is now possessed 
by his grandson, whose father, the second baronet, assumed 
the name of Fitzwygram. Sir Robert Wigram married two 
wives, and was the parent of twenty-three children, of whom 



1837— JAMES WIGBAM. 301 

Sir James, the vice-chancellor, was his third son by his 
second wife, Eleanor daughter of John Watts, Esq., of 
Southampton. 

Sir James was bom at his father's seat, Walthamstow 
House, Essex, on November 5, 1793. Feeling that the 
seven years he spent at a private school had been wasted, he 
had the courage, at the age of sixteen, to follow the advice 
of the Rev. Thomas Bourdillion of Fen Stanton, with whom 
he was then placed as pupil, and to begin his education again 
from the beginning. This he did so successfully that at 
Cambridge (where he began his residence at Trinity College 
in 1811, under the private tutorship of the Rev. Charles 
Webb le Bas, subsequently principal of the East India 
College, Haileybury) he became fifth wrangler in 1815, and 
in autumn 1817 gained a fellowship at Trinity, taking his 
degree of B.A. in 1815, and that of M.A. in 1818. In 
December 1818 he married Anne, daughter of Richard 
Arkwright, Esq., of Willersley in Derbyshire, and grand- 
daughter of Sir. Richard Arkwright; and in the following 
year he was called to the bar by the society of Lincoln's Inn. 
Attaching himself to the court of Chancery, he practised 
there with such success that in 1834 he was made one of the 
king's counsel; having in 1831 published a treatise entitled 
" An Examination of the Rules of Law respecting the Ad- 
mission of Extrinsic Evidence in aid of the Interpretation 
of Wills;" which has already gone through four editions. 
This treatise was followed in 1836 by another, entitled 
** Points in the Law of Discovery;" which is equally useful 
and highly esteemed. These publications led to a very inter- 
esting correspondence with some of the American judges, 
among whom was Dr. Story, the celebrated author of the 
well-known Commentaries. 

While enjoying a distinguished lead in the courts of 
equity, he entered parliament as member for Leominster in 



302 JAMES WIGRAM. Victobia. 

June 1841 ; but had little opportunity of exhibiting any 
senatorial talent, for within four months he received the 
reward of his forensic labours, and vacated his seat upon 
being nused to the bench. On October 28 of that year, on 
the passing of an Act of Parliament (5 Vict. c. 5, s. 19) 
authorising the appointment of two new judges of the court 
of Chancery, to be called vice-chancellors, Mr. J. L. Kiiight- 
Bruce and Mr. James Wigram were selected from the equity 
bar to fin those offices, and they entered upon their duties in 
Michaelmas Term. They were both knighted in January 
foUowipg, and sworn in as members of the Privy Council. 
Sir James Wigram presided over his court for nine years, 
his decrees being remarkable for the lucid exposition of the 
legal principles involved in the cases on which he had to 
adjudicate. They were the subject of general approbation, 
and were highly extolled by those most competent to form a 
judgment. As reported by Mr. Thomas Hare, all of them 
have the special advantage of having been seen and approved 
by the judge before publication. 

In consequence of ill health, which resulted in total loss of 
sight. Sir James felt himself compelled to resign his post in 
Trinity Vacation 1850. Serenely patient under his affliction, 
all must hope that he may be relieved from his prostration 
of strength, and that he yet may enjoy many years in 
witnessing the success and well-being of his children.^ 

' For manj of the facts in this sketch I am indebted to the courteons 
liberality of Sir James Wigram : for the opinions I am alone responsible. 



1837— JAMES PLAISTED WILDE. 303 



WILDE, JAMES PLAISTED. 

B. E. 1860^ 

Although Sir James Plaisted Wilde is no longer a baron 
of the Exchequer, yet as a living judge in another court I 
feel bound very reluctantly to abstain froni expressing any 
opinion on his judicial merits. He is the fourth son of 
Edward Archer Wilde, Esq., an eminent attorney and 
solicitor in London, for which city and the county of 
Middlesex he served the office of sheriff in 1828. His 
father was the brother of the late Lord Truro, with whom 
he was in partnership while his lordship continued in that 
branch of the legal profession. 

Sir James was bom in 1816, and after his preliminary 
education at Winchester School proceeded to Trinity College, 
Cambridge, where he took his degrees of B.A. in 1838 and 
M.A. in 1842. With so much legal blood in his veins he 
was naturally devoted to the same profession, and having 
been entered of the society of Lincoln's Inn was called to 
the bar in 1839. He attached himself to the Northern 
circuit, and in the next year was appointed junior counsel 
to the Excise and Customs. Soon distinguishing himself 
by his deep knowledge of mercantile and maritime law, he 
rapidly advanced in professional reputation, with its sure 
accompaniment of plenty of employment. In 1855 he 
obtained an acknowledged lead as queen's counsel, and in 
1859 he was made counsel to the duchy of Lancaster. 

On the death of Mr. Baron Watson, Mr. Wilde was 
selected to take his place in the Exchequer on April 13, 
1860, and was thereupon knighted. He had not sat in that 
court more than three years and four months before the 
lamented death of that excellent judge Sir Cresswell Cress- 
well occasioned a vacancy in the court of Probate and 



304 JAMES PLAISTED WILDE. Victoria. 

Divorce. It speaks highly of the judicial ability which Sir 
James Wilde had exhibited^ that he should have been called 
upon to undertake the responsible and delicate duties at- 
tached to the office of chief judge of the new court. He 
was appointed to it on August 26, 1863, and so satisfactory 
has been his performance of its duties that it is the universal 
wish, both of the bar and the public, that he may long be 
able to undergo the heavy and incessant labour that de- 
volves upon him. He has since been honoured with a seat 
in the Privy Council. 

Soon after his elevation to the bench of the Exchequer he 
married Lady Mary Bouverie, the youngest daughter of 
William, third earl of Kadnor. 

While these pages have been passing through the press. 
Sir James Wilde has added a new claim to public admiration ; 
and has shown that he is not merely a careful administrator 
of the law, but also an able analyst of its principles. In an 
excellent address delivered by him as president of the de- 
partment of jurisprudence and amendment of the law, in the 
recent meeting of the Social Science Congress at York, he 
gave a rapid account of our original social institutions, of the 
gradual formation of the laws that regulated them, of the 
various additions that the advances of civilisation neces- 
sitated, and of the evils that arose from the complication 
occasioned by the admixture of the new enactments with the 
old, which, though obsolete, remained unrepealed. He pic- 
tured the consequent difficulties felt by the judges, which 
compelled them frequently, in order to do justice, to become 
legislators instead of interpreters ; and in pointing out that 
the cases they decided were so numerous, and the decisions 
they pronounced were often so conflicting, the learned 
lecturer declared that he could see no remedy but in a 
Digest, bringing together the broad principles on which the 



ISS7— ' THOMAS WILDE, 305 

common law reposes^ and which tacitly guide the decisions 
of our courts. Enlarging on the old useless and obstructive 
forms and the absurd intricacies of special pleadings he 
attributed the annihilation of both within the last third of 
a century^ and the subsequent beneficial change in modem 
practice, to the celebrated speech of Lord Brougham in 
February 1828, wherein he exposed in the House of Com- 
mons all the anomalies of legal procedure, and laid open 
the sweeping changes which the law required. Though 
nine-tenths of the evils indicated in that speech. Sir James 
stated, had been successfully met by the precise remedies 
proposed in it, he acknowledged that some defects of a 
similar character still remained : and we can only hope that 
the lecturer's enlightened mind may gradually influence the 
legislature wholly to remove them. 

The meeting of the Social Science Congress, at which 
the address of Sir James Wilde was delivered, was again pre- 
sided over by the popular veteran. Lord Brougham, who in 
the eighty-seventh year of his age opened the congress with 
a masterly oration, as interesting and exhaustive as any he 
had uttered in his previous political career. 



WILDE, THOMAS, Lord Truro. 

Gh. C. p. 1846. LoBD CoANC. 1850. 

The career of Thomas Wilde affords a most uncommon 
instance of the rise from the lowest to the highest step in 
the law, passing through the different grades of attorney, 
barrister, Serjeant, king's seijeant, solicitor and attorney 
general, chief justice and lord chancellor. 

He was born on July 7, 1782, in Castle Street, Falcon 
Square, and was the second son of Mr. Thomas Wilde, an 
attomey-at-law, by his wife Margaret Anne Knight, whose 

VOL. IX. X 



306 THOMAS WILDE. Victoria. 

two other sons were brought up in the same profession : the 
elder becoming a barrister and ultimately chief justice at the 
Cape of Good Hope; and the younger, Edward Archer 
Wilde, holding a high rank as an attorney in London, who 
has been already mentioned as the father of Sir James 
Plaisted Wilde, lately one of the barons of the Exchequer, 
and now judge of the court of Probate and Divorce. 

Thomas Wilde received his education at St. Paul's 
School, and in after life showed how much he appreciated 
the advantages he had derived from that establishment, by 
presenting to it 1,000/. the interest of which he directed to 
be annually expended in prizes to the best scholars. After 
serving the usual amount of clerkship to his father, he wa^ 
admitted as an attorney in 1805 ; and continued to practise 
with great success in that department for nearly twelve 
years. In 1813 he married Mary, daughter of William 
WiUman, Esq., and widow of William Devaynes, Esq., 
the banker. At this time, dissatisfied with the limited 
sphere in which he acted, and conscious that his powers 
were adapted to a more extended range, he entered the 
Inner Temple and was called to the bar by that society on 
February 7, 1817, being then in his thirty-fifth year. 

Overcoming all the obstacles in the way of one who, as it 
were, intrudes himself into a higher branch of his profession, 
he by slow degrees acquired a considerable proportion of busi- 
ness. He is said to have conquered an impediment in his 
speech, which prevented him from uttering certain words, 
by forming a list of synonymes, and substituting them 
whenever the words occurred which he could not pronounce. 
This perseverance was his peculiar characteristic, and ex- 
emplified itself so remarkably in every cause in which he 
was engaged that he won general confidence. His firmness 
and independence secured the attention of the judges ; and 
the character he had thus acquired, with his reputation for 



1837— THOMAS WILDE. * 307 

the power of precise arrangement and for extraordinary 
industry, no doubt caused him to be selected, in 1820, when 
he had been only three years at the bar, as assistant counsel 
in the defence of Queen Caroline; who was so pleased with 
his exertions on her behalf that she appointed him one of her 
executors. This naturally raised Mr. Wilde in professional 
estimation, and his business increased so greatly that he felt 
warranted in accepting the degree of the coif when offered 
to him, in Easter 1824, by Lord Eldon, although as a Whig 
he was opposed to that nobleman's political principles. In 
1827 he had a further advance in being made king's serjeant. 
He attained so prominent a lead in the Common Pleas, that 
in a short time there was scarcely a single cause tried in that 
court, in which he was not engaged on one side or the 
other. Fortunate were those litigants who secured his 
services, for indefatigable were his exertions for their suc- 
cess; and his were not the perfunctory consultations too 
commonly granted for a short half-hour, but real discussions 
into the points to be argued, and the evidence to be given in 
their support. Lord Tenterden is said to have described 
him as having " industry enough to succeed without talent, 
and talent enough to succeed without industry." 

Not satisfied with his forensic triumphs, he sought parlia- 
mentary distinction; and in May 1831, after many previous 
struggles, he secured his seat for Newark- on-Trent, a 
borough which he continued to represent through the 
subsequent parliaments till 1841, when he was returned 
for Worcester. In the senate he took the liberal side of 
politics, and was remarkable more for the clearness of his 
statements and closeness of his arguments, than for the 
fascination of his eloquence. His steady support of the 
Whig party, and his commanding position at the bar, 
naturally recommended him to the Government for employ- 

X 2 



308 THOMAS WILDE. Victoria. 

ment; and on February 9, 1840, he was consequently made 
solicitor-general^ and knighted. 

In the following June he lost his wife after a union of 
twenty-seven years; and having remained a widower for 
five years, he married Augusta Emma D'Este, the daughter 
of the Duke of Sussex and Lady Augusta Murray, whose 
legitimacy he had previously endeavoured to establish before 
the House of Lords. 

On Lord Campbell's being sent to Ireland as lord 
chancellor, at the end of June 1841, for the two months 
during which the administration of Lord Melbourne was 
doomed to last. Sir Thomas Wilde succeeded for that short 
interval to the oflSce of attorney-general, of course retiring 
from it with the minister. For the five following years 
he remained out of office ; but on the restoration of the 
Whig party under Lord John Bussell in July 1846, he was 
replaced as attorney- general, to be again removed in three 
or four days, on being promoted to the office of lord chief 
justice of the Common Pleas on the 7th of that month, a 
vacancy in that court having been occasioned by the death 
of Sir Nicolas Tindal only the day before. 

When he had presided in the Common Pleas for four years, 
he was selected, after a short interval during which the 
office was in commission, to succeed Lord Cottenham as 
lord chancellor of Great Britain, and the Great Seal was 
given to him on July 15, 1850, together with a patent of 
peerage, by which he was created Baron Truro of Bowes 
in Middlesex. This high dignity he held for nineteen 
months only, the prime minister. Lord John Russell, being 
compelled to retire in February 1852, when Lord Truro 
was necessarily superseded. 

It must not have been the least gratifying circumstance 
attending his elevation to receive an affectionate address of 
congratulation from nearly five hundred members of that 



1837— THOMAS WILDE. 309 

branch of the profession to which he had originally belonged, 
expressive of their strong appreciation of his honourable 
conduct through life, of his zealous and indefatigable exer- 
tions as an advocate, and of the unvarying courtesy they 
had experienced at his hands. This address was accom- 
panied by a request that his lordship should sit for his 
portrait to be placed in the hall of the Incorporated Law 
Society ; where it now ornaments the walls, and reminds 
the young student that by personal industry and exertion he 
may raise himself to the same honours* 

During the V short period in which Lord Truro held the 
Seal he was deeply engaged in promoting various important 
law reforms. He appointed a commission to inquire as to 
the pleading and practice of his court, and assisted Lord 
St. Leonard's, who succeeded him in his office, in carrying 
into effect the most important regulations in the report. He 
established a system of paying the fees of the court by means 
of stamps, and greatly reduced their amount. He effected 
that most important change in the constitution of the court, 
in the appointment of the court of Appeal, which at once 
remedied the great evil of delay so long complained of, and 
relieved the chancellor of one of the most oppressive parts of 
his duties. His exertions were not limited to reforming the 
court of Chancery ; they were extended also to the common 
law courts ; with regard to which he originated many im- 
portant changes, which have been greatly beneficial to the 
suitors, in preventing delay and reducing expense. Both as 
chief justice and chancellor he showed the most untiring 
patience; and the judgments he pronounced have been 
considered by the profession to be highly satisfactory. It 
is no small proof of their value that only one was appealed 
from, though many of them were reversals of decisions of 
the vice-chancellors ; and that one was affirmed. 

His courtesy and kindness were not confined to his 



310 THOMAS WILDE. Victobia. 

professionfil clients nor to his political partisans, but were 
distinctive marks of his general character. He exhibited a 
pleasing proof of his generous feelings when Sir Frederick 
Thesiger became solicitor-general in 1844, and before he had 
acquired any experience in his office had the additional duties 
of the attorney-general thrown upon him by the illness and 
consequent absence of Sir William Follett Though Sir 
Frederick was of the adverse party in politics, and a cool- 
ness had existed between them from their having been op- 
posed to each other in the contest for Newark, Sir Thomas 
Wilde, as soon as he saw the difficulty of Sir Frederick's 
position, most liberally offered and gave every assistance 
and advice in his power as to the professional, apart £rom 
the political, duties of the office. 

Lord Truro survived his retirement for nearly four years, 
during two of which he suffered much from a painful illness, 
which terminated in his death on November 11, 1855, at his 
house in Eaton Square. He was buried in the mausoleum 
erected by Sir Augustus D'Este, at the Church of St. 
Lawrence, Ramsgate. 

By his first wife he had issue, two sons and a daughter. 
His eldest son is the present peer, and his youngest is a 
barrister and was lately registrar of the court of Bankruptcy 
at Manchester, His daughter is married to her cousin 
Charles Norris Wilde, Esq., the brother of Sir James Plaisted 
Wilde, judge of the Divorce Court. 

Lady Truro, soon after his lordship's death, gracefully 
offered the whole of his law books to the library of the 
House of Lords, and must have felt amply repaid for her 
generous gift by the encomiums that were uttered by every 
leading peer when accepting it, on the legal attainments 
and judicial excellence of her husband, and on his honour- 
able exertions for the public and the disinterestedness that 
characterised him. 



1837-^ JAMES SHAW WILLES. 311 

WILLES, JAMES SHAW. 
Just. C. P. 1855. 

Sir James Shaw Willes, one of the present judges of 
the court of Common Pleas, belongs to an Irish family, of 
English extraction. His grandfather and father, . both 
named James, were resident at Cork, the former as a 
merchant, and the latter as a physician. His mother was 
Elizabeth Aldworth, daughter of John Shaw, Esq., mayor 
of Cork in 1792. The judge was bom in Cork on February 
13, 1814, and finished his education at Trinity College, 
Dublin, where he took his degree of B.A. in 1836. After 
studying the law for nearly five years he was called to the 
bar by the society of the Inner Temple on June 12, 1840. 
He edited Smith's ^* Leading Cases " in conjunction with Mr. 
Justice Keating in 1847 ; another edition of which was 
published by them in 1856 : — and in 1850 he was selected as 
a common law commissioner. His practice was principally 
in the court of Exchequer, where he filled the post of 
tubman from 1851 till his elevation to the bench. 

That event occurred on the resignation of Mr. Justice 
Maule, when Mr. Willes was appointed to succeed him on 
July 3, 1855, as a judge of the court of Common Pleas ; 
and in the following month he was knighted at Osborne. 
A pregnant proof of the estimation which he commands as 
a lawyer is afforded by his being placed on the Indian law 
commission in 1861, and on the English and Irish law com- 
mission in 1862. 

Devoting his body as well as his mind to the service of the 
country, and considering that ^^ the post of honour is the 
private station," he has served in the ranks of the Inns of 
Court Volunteer Corps since its formation in 1859. In 1860 
the degree of LL.D. was conferred upon him by his Alma r 
Mater, ** stipendiis condonatis." 



312 EDWABD VAUGIIAN WILLIAMS. Victoria- 

The judge married in 1856 Helen^ daughter of the late 
Thomas Jemiings^ Esq., of Cork. 



WILLIAMS, EDWARD VAUGHAN. 

JU8T. C. P. 1846. 

For more than eighteen years Sir Edward Vaughan 
Williams has been one of the judges of the Common Pleas, 
and during the whole of that time has fully maintained the 
high reputation he had previously earned by his useful and 
learned publications. He was a lawyer from his birth, his 
father, John Williams, Esq., being the Serjeant in the reign 
of George III. who added valuable notes to an edition of 
Chief Justice Saunders's " Reports." Of Welsh extraction, 
the judge, in a congratulatory address from the corporation 
of Elidwelly on his being raised to the bench, is claimed 
as a countryman and a native of Carmarthenshire ; but he is 
described in Dod's "Peerage," as having been born in 
London. 

He was called to the bar by the society of Lincoln's Inn 
on June 17, 1823 ; and naturally chose the South Wales 
and Chester circuit. In the very next year he commenced 
his career as an author by publishing another edition of 
Saunders's " Reports," enriching it in conjunction with the 
late Mr. Justice Patteson with such admirable notes to his 
father's edition as brought down the history of the law to 
the date of the work. For the twenty-three years that he 
remained at the bar he varied his forensic occupations by 
issuing from the press several other works ; among which 
were a " Treatise on the Law of Executors," in 1832, 
which is in high estimation, and the fourth edition of which 
was published in 1849 ; and an edition of Burn's " Justice" 
in 1836, in conjunction with Mr. Serjeant D'Oyley. 



1837— JOUN WILLIAMS. 313 

He served an apprenticeship to the judicial office as 
recorder of Kidwelly, the corporation of which on his 
resignation expressed their high estimation of him for his 
'^undeniable integrity as a citizen and his well-deserved 
reputation as a profound lawyer." He was raised to the 
bench of the Common Pleas in October 1846, in the place 
of Sir William Erie, who was removed into the court of 
Queen's Bench. 

He married Jane Margaret, a daughter of the Rev. 
Walter Bagot of Pype Hall in StaflFordshire. 



WILLIAMS, JOHN. 

Just. Q. B, 1837. 
See under the Reign of William IV. 

We have in Sir John Williams another example of the 
union of law and literature, and an additional proof that the 
deepest scholastic attainments are not incompatible with 
professional success. Sir John's love of the classics and 
devotion to the Muses did not prevent him from being a 
hard-working advocate, a zealous law reformer, or a good 
practical judge. He was of Welsh extraction, being 
descended from an ancient family in Merionethshire; but 
was bom at Bunbury in Cheshire, of which his father was 
vicar, as well as holding a living in the former county. He 
was bom in January 1777, and imbibed his classical tastes 
at the grammar school of Manchester; from whence pro- 
ceeding to the University of Cambridge he gained a scholar- 
ship at Trinity College at the age of eighteen. In his 
progress he won many prizes, and graduating as B.A. in 
1798 he succeeded in obtaining a fellowship after a strenuous 
competition. 



314 JOHN WILLIAMS. YiCTOBiA. 

His legal school was the Middle Temple^ where he took 
his degree of barrister in 1804. On the Northern circuit 
and at the Manchester and Chester sessions he made his 
first attempts, and by degrees, for his progress was slow, 
satisfied the dispensers of business of his skill as an advocate, 
and of his painstaking zeal for his clients. His merits were 
so great, and his reputation for accuracy,, ingenuity, and 
boldness became so well established, that in 1820 he was 
selected to assist Mr. Brougham and Mr. Denman in the 
defence of Queen Caroline, in the course of which he fully 
confirmed the character he had obtained. This naturally 
made him a marked man ; but, though it increased his pro- 
fessional employment, it delayed his acquisition of pro- 
feflsional mnk. This, however, may perhaps be accounted 
for by his attacks upon Lord Chancellor Eldon in the House 
of Conunons, of which he had been elected a member in 1823 
as the representative of the city of Lincoln. No sooner 
had parliament met than Mr. Williams commenced that 
series of motions upon the delays in Chancery, which 
ultimately, after some years, led to a commission of inquiry 
and the introduction of bills for reforming the proceedings 
in that court. These motions exhibited undoubtedly too 
much acerbity, and seemed to be dictated, as much by 
personal, as they certainly were by poKtical, feelings against 
Lord Eldon. In 1827 he attained a silk gown ; and on the 
accession of William IV. he was appointed, first solicitor, 
and then attorney general, to Queen Adelaide; and on 
February 28, 1834, was advanced to the bench as a baron of 
the Exchequer, on the retirement of Mr. Baron Bayley. 
In the following term, however, changing places with Mr. 
Justice Parke, he took his seat in the court of King's Bench, 
having received the accustomed honour of knighthood. 

During the whole of this period he never deserted his 
classical favourites ; contributing several articles on the 



1837— JOHN WILLIAMS. 315 

Greek Orators to the " Edinburgh Review," and translating 
some of their best orations, one of which, that of Demosthenes 
" For the Independence of Rhodes," was published in the 
Appendix to the authorised edition of the Speeches of Lord 
Brougham, who had already shown his estimation of the 
writer, by dedicating to him his lordship's " Dissertation on 
the Eloquence of the Ancients." Sir John was also an adept 
in the turn of a Greek epigram, and Lord Tenterden speaks 
of several that he had written when Queen's solicitor, 
speaking of him as **an admirable scholar."^ He afterwards 
published a collection under the title of ^^ Nugae Metricae." 

He remained on the bench for a little less than thirteen 
years, when he died on September 14, 1846, at his seat, 
Livermore Park near Bury St. Edmunds. At his outset in 
the judge's office he was ignorant of the minor details of 
practice, and many curious anecdotes are told of his per- 
plexing counsel and attorney by refusing to grant orders of 
course, which involved some absurd and since disused fiction 
of law. He soon overcame this difficulty, and became an 
excellent judge. With much eccentricity of manner, and a 
strong and decided way of expressing his opinions, he was a 
great favourite both with his brethren and the bar, from the 
cordiality and kindness of his nature. To the last he would 
spout Horace and Demosthenes by the hour if he could obtain 
an audience ; and there was nothing so annoyed him as to 
hear counsel perpetrate a false quantity. 

He married Harriet Catherine, the daughter of Davies 
Davenport, Esq., of Capesthome Hall, Macclesfield, for many 
years M.P. for Cheshire.^ 

> Lord Campbell's Ch. Justices, iii. 344. 
' Law Magazine for Feb. 1847. 



316 WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. Victoria. 

WOOD, WILLIAM PAGE. 

VlGB Chasc. 1853. 

From a branch of an ancient family of some note in the 
counties of Cornwall and Devon, and called by the names of 
Att-wood and Wood,' the vice-chancellor descended. One 
of his immediate ancestors acted as squire at the funeral of 
Catherine, Countess of Devon, sister of Edward IV. ; but the 
family gradually becoming reduced in circumstances, his 
grandfather, who carried on the business of a serge manu- 
facturer, was incapable of making any provision for a 
numerous progeny. The eldest of his children, Matthew 
Wood, by his persevering industry and commercial integrity 
as a hop-merchant in Falcon Square, London, restored the 
fortunes of the house ; first becoming a common councilman 
and then an alderman of the city of London. Extremely 
popular from the liberal opinions he entertained, he was 
returned member for the city in 1815, and retained that 
honourable post, through nine successive parliaments, to the 
end of his life, — a period of 28 years. — In the same year he 
was elected lord mayor, and in the next year, such was the 
activity and intelligence he displayed, that he had the honour, 
which for centuries had been unknown, of being elected a 
second time. Uniformly liberal in politics, he was vehemently 
opposed to the Corn Laws, and to the Test and Corporation 
Acts; and a firm advocate for Catholic emancipation and 
parliamentary reform; and before his death he had the 
satisfaction of seeing both the latter effected, and all the 
former repealed. He took a most prominent part in support 
of Queen Caroline on the accession of George IV., and was 
created in December 1837 a baronet by Queen Victoria. 
It was owing to his recommendation to the Duke of Kent, 

» Gilbert's Cornwall, ii 332. 



1837— WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. 317 

for whom lie acted as trustee, that the duke returned to 
Eugland from Brussels, in order that his eldest child might 
be bom a Briton. He married Maria, daughter of John 
Page of Woodbridge in Suffolk, surgeon, and upon his death 
in 1843 he left five surviving children, — two daughters, both 
married ; and three sons ; the eldest of whom. Sir John Page 
Wood, the present baronet, is rector of St. Peter's, Comhill, 
and vicar of Crepingin Essex; the youngest. Western Wood, 
Esq., died recently as representative of the city of London ; 
and the second is the subject of the present memoir. Sir 
Matthew's brother, Benjamin Wood, Esq., successfully con- 
tested a seat in parliament for the borough of Southwark 
with the late Mr. Walter, proprietor of the *^ Times," and 
represented that borough till his death. 

William Page Wood, the second surviving son, was bom 
on November 29, 1801, and was named after his uncle 
William Woods Page, to whom is to be attributed the early 
taste he acquired for literature. Spending his infancy at his 
grandmother's at Woodbridge, he received the rudunents of 
his education at the free grammar school of that town.* After 
staying there for a year he went to Dr. Lindsay's at Bow for 
three years. In 1812 he was removed to Winchester College, 
where under the able instruction of Dr. Gabell and Dr. 
Williams, head master and second master of the school, he 
acquired, besides the complete mastery of the usual branches 
of learning, that clearness and precision of statement which 
is his peculiar characteristic. In May 1818, being then a 
prefect, he was engaged in the rebellion which was organised 
against the master, and which was not suppressed without 
the aid of the military. When taken, he refused an escape 
from expulsion, to which the other prefects were subjected, 

* Curiouslj enough, the yice-chancellor was lately called upon to settle a 
scheme for the extension and improvement of this school where he was first 
educated. 



318 WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. Victoria. 

which was offered him on account of the fayour which he had 
acquired with the master by the general regularity of his 
conduct; and his success in gaining the prize in every class 
through which he had passed. The vice-chancellor must 
look back to this period of his life^ notwithstanding its un- 
fortunate termination, with peculiar pleasure, not only for the 
learning and experience he acquired, but still more for the 
lasting friendship which he formed at school with Dr. Hook, 
the present dean of Chichester, who, besides the excellence 
of his literary compositions, is deservedly renowned for his 
untiring energy and extraordinary success in his former 
incumbencies of Coventry and Leeds. To his appointment 
to the latter parish the vice-chancellor had the delight of being 
accidentally, or rather providentially, instrumental ; and it 
is worthy of record that during each of the twenty-three 
years of his ministry there he procured the erection of a 
church, a school, and a parsonage, per annum; and so 
effective was his influence with the inhabitants that he was 
able to levy 10,000/. a year among them. The calamity 
which has befallen Chichester Cathedral now makes a new 
demand on his exertions : may they be equally successful I 
With this remarkable man the vice-chancellor united in 
forming among their schoolfellows an order of Shakspeare 
and Milton knighthood, they being of course the first mem- 
bers. Their reading was not confined to those authors, 
but extended to all the Elizabethan classics, the study of 
which was much encouraged by Dr. Gabell. 

During the vacations the vice-chancellor obtained his first 
experience of law by accompanying his father the alderman 
to the Old Bailey sessions, and took an early disgust at the 
proceedings there, especially at the wholesale sentences of 
death then pronounced against prisoners, few of whom were 
intended to suffer the extremity of the law. In accompany- 
ing his father to the House of Commons also, he had the 



1837— WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. 319 

advantage of hearing all the principal parliamentary orators ; 
and during the two years of his father's mayoralties his 
mind was further opened by association with the great men 
of all parties^ who were entertained at the Mansion House ; 
and in a short visit to Paris at the conclusion of the 
mayoralty, he was admitted, whilst yet a boy, into the 
highest French society. Such intercourse formed an im- 
portant part in young Wood's education, and he naturally 
imbibed his father's political sentiments, then entertained by 
a comparatively small but increasing class, which subjected 
him to much ridicule among his church-and-state contempo- 
raries at Winchester. 

After leaving Winchester College he spent the next two 
years at Geneva, profiting greatly under the excellent 
lecturers of that university, among whom was the eloquent 
and learned Kossi, who was afterwards murdered when 
minister to Pope Pius IX. From his instruction young 
Wood acquired a knowledge of the Boman law ; and from 
the association with Genevan society, and that of the 
variety of foreigners of all nations who flocked there, he 
gained such an acquaintance with their several languages, 
as gave him great advantages in his future intercourse with 
the world. He passed his first year's examination with 
great credit, but unfortunately was prevented taking his 
degree in the second year, by being obliged, by direction of 
his father a fortnight before the examination took place, to 
come to England in the suite of Queen Caroline. Being 
then in his nineteenth year, he was naturally much employed 
in the previous negotiations, and deeply interested in the 
subsequent progress, of the lamentable proceedings against 
her ; accompanying from June till October the persons sent 
to Italy to collect evidence on her behalf, and occasionally 
acting as translator of the necessary documents, and as 
interpreter on the examination of the various witnesses. 



320 WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. Victobuu 

The result upon his miud^ from their testimony^ from his 
own observation^ and from the esteem with which many 
Italian families of the highest respectability regarded her, 
was that she was wholly innocent of the charge brought 
against her, and guilty of nothing beyond imprudence. 

In October 1820 he joined his brother at Trinity College, 
Cambridge, where he obtained a scholarship on his first trial ; 
and was alway^in the first class at the examinations. In 
the second year he gained one of the declamation prizes ; 
the question being " Whether the Bevolution or the Kestora- 
tion had conferred the greater benefit on our country ; " he 
arguing in favour of the former. Notwithstanding the 
rank he had earned in his college by his attainments, yet, 
owing to a serious illness, occasioned by too laborious an 
application to his studies, he failed in obtaining a higher place 
in the list of honours, in January 1824, than that of twenty- 
fourth wrangler. In October of that year, however, he stood 
for a fellowship in his college, and succeeded in obtaining it, 
though nearly rejected by the veto of the master and one 
fellow, in consequence of the supposed radicalism of his 
prize declamation. The threatened veto was, however, 
withdrawn ; and as a Cambridge University commissioner he 
has since assisted in abolishing this power on the part of the 
master. In the previous Trinity Term he had been entered 
at Lincoln's Inn, having already placed himself under the 
late Master Roupell for instructions in equity drawing. 
During his Cambridge career he prominently assisted in his 
father's energetic measures on behalf of the Spanish and 
Italian refugees, then flocking to this country in extreme 
destitution, by which a subscription of above 100,0007. was 
collected for their support. 

While studying for the bar he placed himself as a pupil 
under that great master of the law of real property, John 
Tyrrell, Esq. ; when that branch of learning was in a 



1837— WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. 321 

transition state between the mass of verbiage that had dis- 
graced the conveyances of land^ and the more simple forms 
which were then in a gradual course of adoption. By Mr. 
Tyrrell's dareful mode of instruction and indefatigable 
attention to his young pupils, Mr. Wood acquired that deep 
insight into English law which he exhibits on the bench. 
Our student's labours in this period were relaxed by another 
visit to Italy, where he was introduced to that extraordinary 
linguist. Cardinal Mezzofanti; and by associating with 
many celebrities of the time, among whom were Irviug, 
Carlyle, Procter (Barry Cornwall), and Coleridge. Most of 
these he met at the house of Basil Montague, for whose edi- 
tion of Bacon's Works he translated the " Novxmi Organum," 
which haa been since separately printed and is described 
in the late Oxford edition as the best rendering of that 
wonderful work. Just before his call to the bar, after the 
battle of NavariQO, he wrote a long letter, which was first 
published in the " Times " and afterwards in the " Pam- 
phleteer," recommending an alliance between France and 
England for the purpose of strengthening Turkey against 
Prussia ; in consequence of which he was offered by the then 
editor of that influential paper full employment if he would 
undertake to write for the press. Mr. Wood, however, 
feeling that it would interfere with his professional prospects, 
declined the flattering proposal. 

Mr. Wood was called to the bar on November 27, 1827, 
and established himself in the same chambers with a learned 
and intellectual barrister, William Lowndes, Esq., after- 
wards a judge of the local court at Liverpool. He was 
soon well employed as an equity draftsman and convey- 
ancer ; and when engaged in court experienced the different 
but characteristic treatment of the two principal judges ; 
being visited by one of the usual rebuffs of Sir John Leach, 
and being encouraged by the natural courtesy of Lord 

VOL. XX. Y 



322 WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. Victoria. 

Lyndhurst On the introduction in the next year of the 
railway system he was fortunate in obtaining a large share 
in the new business then brought before the conunittees of 
the Houses of Commons and Lords, as either the supporter 
or opposer of the various speculations to which it gave rise. 
In January 1830 he married Charlotte, the only daughter 
of Major Edward Moor, F.R.S., of Great Bealings near 
Woodbridge, the author of the " Hindoo Pantheon," and of 
varioiis other works on interesting Indian subjects. In 
1834 he was himself elected a fellow of the Royal Society, 
and has since served as a member of the council and as a 
vice-president of the society. Although largely engaged in 
parliamentary practice he did not neglect his business in 
Chancery, and both fully employed him. In the year 1841, 
however, the increased labour and demand on his time con- 
sequent on the appointment of two additional vice-chan- 
cellors, compelled him to confine himself to one or the other 
practice. He wisely selected the latter, though then in- 
finitely less profitable; and, attaching himself to Vice- 
Chancellor Wigram's court, found his account by the 
encouragement he received in a great accession of business. 
About this time the long litigation relative to the will of 
Mr. James Wood of Gloucester was terminated, by which 
Sir Matthew Wood's right to a very large portion of the 
testator's estate was fully established ; and his son's prospects 
materially benefited. In February 1845 he was appointed 
queen's counsel, and in 1847 was returned to parliament as 
member for the city of Oxford, which he continued to re- 
present till his elevation to the bench. In parliament he 
took a very prominent part, advocating the admissibility of 
Jew members on taking a modified oath ; and introducing 
bills to allow the testimony of scrupulous persons to be 
received on such declarations as would bind their own con- 
sciences, but under the usual penalties for perjury. He 



11 



1837— WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. 323 

was a friend to reform in the representation, and even to 
vote by ballot ; but though advocating these liberal views 
he avowed himself a firm supporter of the church establish- 
ment, and resisted the motions for the abolition of church 
rates, and for legalising marriages with a deceased wife's 
sister. 

In May 1849 he accepted the office of vice-chancellor 
of the county palatine of Lancaster, offered to him by Lord 
Campbell, then the chancellor of the duchy, on condition 
that a bill should be passed for the reform of the court 
there, which from its antiquated proceedings was then 
nearly useless ; and he had the satisfaction of obtaining the 
desired enactment, by which the jurisdiction has been since 
rendered highly effective. 

On March 28, 1851, Mr. Wood was selected by Lord 
John Russell for the office of solicitor-general, and was soon 
afterwards knighted. He was then appointed one of the 
commissioners for reforming the court of Chancery ; the 
result of whose labours was that the master's offices were 
abolished, and the expense and delay of the proceedings 
materially diminished. This and other improvements, pro- 
posed while Lord John Russell was prime minister, were so 
much approved by the succeeding government that they 
were at once adopted and passed the legislature. The Act 
for the appointment of the lord justices of appeal was passed 
while Sir William Page Wood was solicitor-general ; and 
Lord Chancellor Truro then offered Sir William the post of 
vice-chancellor, which at the request of Lord John Russell 
he declined. In 1851 the University of Oxford conferred on 
him the honorary degree of D.C.L. He of course retired 
from office on the resignation of Lord John in February 
1852 ; when Lord Derby succeeded and remained minister 
till December. The government being then surrendered to 
Lord Aberdeen, and Sir George Turner being soon after 

Y 2 



324 WILLIAM PAOE WOOD. ViCTOBlA. 

constitntcd one of the lords justices, the vacant vice-chan- 
cellorship was offered to Sir William Page Wood ; who was 
appointed on January 10, 1853. 

Both before and after his elevation, his services were put 
into active requisition on numerous commissions connected 
both with the church and the law, which involved him in 
perpetual labour. But he felt himself repaid by the know- 
ledge of the benefits produced by the legislature's adoption 
of many of the recommendations contained in their reports. 
lie was selected by Lord Chancellor Cranworth to act with 
Lord Wensleydale and Sir Lawrence Peel as arbitrators be- 
tween Her Majesty and the King of Hanover with reference 
to certidn crown jewels claimed by that king. A decided 
and conscientious churchman, he has actively assisted the 
exertions of several societies for the promotion of church 
objects, and the instruction of the people. In his own 
district, that of St. Margaret's and St. John's, Westminster, 
where, when he first knew it, there were only two churches, 
a dilapidated chapel of ease, and five clergymen ; with little 
more than two hundred children at school ; there are now 
ten churches, twenty-six clergy, and more than ten times the 
oritrinal number of schools. To this amendment Sir William 
Page Wood greatly contributed by his personal activity and 
extensive influence ; and he had the satisfaction of materially 
aiding in the establishment in his district of the only free 
library under Mr. Ewart's Act in the metropolis ; the benefit 
of which is proved by its being visited by 3,000 persons 
every month, and by 4,000 books being lent for reading 
during the same time. 

Of the manner in which he has exercised his judicial 
functions for nearly twelve years, during which he has 
presided in his court, it would be unbecoming to say more 
than that litigants are generally desirous of having their 
causes set down in his paper. He is in the habit of pro- 



1837— WILLIAM PAGE WOOD. 325 

nouncing his judgments ore tenus^ not from prepared notes ; 
and notwithstanding the discourteous and somewhat inde- 
corous reflections made upon the practice by Lord Chancellor 
Campbell, he still continues it, satisfied with revising his 
judgments before they are printed by the regular reporters 
of his court, and justifying himself by the consciousness that 
so much writing is injurious to his health, and by the 
conviction that the delay the preparation of them would 
occasion would be much more detrimental to the suitor, than 
could be compensated by any supposed clearness in the 
composition.* 

^ For most of the facts contained in this memoir I am indebted to the 
kindness of the subject of them : for the observations and opinions I am alone 
responsible. 



INDEX 

TO THE NINTH VOLUME. 



*^* The names of the Judges whose Lives are ginen in this Volume are printed in 

Shall Capitals. 



Abbott, Charles, Lord Tenterden. 
Geo. IV. 9 ; Will. IV. 68. 

Abinger, Lord. See J. Scarlett. 

Additional Judges in Common Lanr, 
55. 

Aldk&sok, Edward Hall. Will. IV. 
73; Vict. 130. 

Alexakdsk, William. Geo, IV. 9; 
Will. IV. 74. 

Appeal in Chancery, Court of, insti- 
tuted, 99 ; Lord Justices of, 103. 

Attorney- Generals, 6, 64, 115. 

Attorneys and Solicitors, Act regulat- 
ing ; 128 ; Registrar of, 129. 

Bakkes, George. Geo. IV. 9; Vict. 

133. 
Barnard's Inn, 8, 128. 
Bankruptcy, new Court of, instituted, 

56; abolished, 100. 
Batlet, Johk. Geo. IV. 9; Will. 

IV, 75. 
Best, William Draper, Lord Wyn- 

ford. Geo. IV. 9. 
Bethell, Richard, Lord Westbury. 

Vict. 134. 
Bickersteth, Hekrt, Lord Langdale. 

Will. IV. 78 ; Vict. 136. 
Blackburn, Colin. Vict. 146. 
BoLLAND, William. Geo. IV. 13 ; 

Will. IV. 78 ; Vict. 137. 
BosANQUBT, John Bernard. Geo, 

IV. 13; Will. IV. 78; Vict. 

149. 
Bramwbll, George William. Vict. 

151. 
Brougham, Henrt, Lord. Will. IV. 

78. 
Bruce, Jambs Lewis Knight. Vict. 

152. 



Burrough, James. Geo. IV. 13. 
Btles, John Barnard. Vict. 154. 

Campbell, John, Lord. Vict. 155. 
Chancellors and Commissioners of the 

Great Seal, under Geo. IV. 2, 5 ; 

WiU. IV. 57, 62; Vict. 101, 111. 
Chancellor's retiring pension increased, 

57 ; salary fixed, 57, 101. 
Chancery, 5, 62, 111; alterations in, 

57, 59. 99, 105; Masters in, 3, 59, 

105 ; their office abolished, 106. 
Chan NELL, William Fry. Vict 167. 
Chelmsford, Lord. See F. Thesiger. 
Circuits altered, 122. 
Clement's Inn, 127. 
Clifford's Inn, 67. 
CocKBURN, Alexander J. £. Vict. 

167. 
Coleridge, John Taylor. Will. IV. 

86; Vict. 171. 
Coltman, Thomas. Will. IV. 86 ; 

Vict. 176. 
Commissioners of the Great Seal See 

Chancellors. 
Common Pleas, 4, 6, 61, 63, 107, 113; 

Chief Justices of, 4,61, 107; Judges 

of, 4, 61, 108. 
Copley, John Singleton, Lord Lynd- 

hurst Geo. IV. 14; Will. IV. 

86 ; Vict. 178. 
Cottenham, Earl of. See C, C. Pepys. 
Cranworth, Lord. See R. M. Rolfe. 
Cresswell, Cresswell. Vict. 184. 
Cromfion, Charles. Vict 187. 
Crowder, Richard Budden. Vict. 

188. 
Cursitor Baron of Exchequer, office 

of, abolished, 109. 



328 



IND£X. 



Dallas, RoBxar. Geo. IV. 15. 
DsNMAir, Thomas, Lord. Will IV. 

86; Viet. 189. 
Divorce and Probate, Court of, in- 

stitutedf 100. 

Eldon, Earl of. See J. Soott. 

Erle, WiLUAM. Viet. S04. 

EasKiNB, TuoMAi. Vict S06. 

Exchequer, 5, 6, 61, 63, 108, 114; 
Chief Barons o<; 5, 61, 108; Baroni 
of, 5, 61, 109; Equity jurisdiction 
abolished, 99. 

Garrow, William. Geo. IV. 17 1 

Will. IV. 86. 
Gasrlke, SrxrHXM. Gea IV. 17; 

Will. IV. 91. 
GEORGE IV. Sunrey of Reign, 1. 
GirroRD, RoaaaT, Lord. Geo. IV. 17. 
Graham, Robsrt. Geo. IV. 22. 
GuRNxr, John. Will. IV. 91; Vict. 

211. 

Hart, Amthomt. Geo. IV. 83. 

Hill, Hugh. Vict. 215. 

HoLROTo^ GsoROB SowLXY. Geo. IV. 

24. 
HuLLocK, John. Geo. IV. 27. 

Inns of Court and Chancery, 8, 1 22. 

JxRvis, John. \^ct. 216. 
Judges, Salaries of, 1, 57, 100. 

Kkatino, Hxnrt Singbr. Vict. 218. 

KlNDKRSLBT, RlCHARD TORIN. Vict. 

219. 
King's or Queen's Bench, 3, 6, 60, 63, 

106, 112; Chief Justices of, 3, 60, 

106 ; Judges o^ 4, 60, 107. 
King's or Queen's Counsel, 8, 66, 120; 

increase of them accounted for, 65 ; 

perquisites taken away, 66. 

Langdale, Lord. See H. Bickerateth. 
Lbach, John. Geo. IV. 30; Vict 92. 
Legal Changes, 55, 99. 
Lincoln's Inn, 8, 123. 
LiTTLEDALB, JosEPH. Geo. I V. 30 ; 

Wm. IV. 95 ; Vict 220. 
Lyndhurst, Lord. See J. S. Copley. 
Lyon's Inn, 127. 

Martin, Samuel. Vict. 222. 
Masbres, Francis. Geo. IV. 30. 
Maule, William Henrt. Vict 223. 



Mbllob, John. Vict 226. 
New Inn, 128. 

Park, Jambs Alan. Geo. IV. 32; 

Will IV. 95; Vict 229. 
Parxb, James, Lord Wensleydale. 

Geo. IV. 32; WUl. IV. 95; Vict 

231. 
Parker, Jambs. Vict 233. 
Patteson, John. Will. IV. 96; Vict. 

235. 
Pepts, Charles Christophxr, Earl 

of Coltenham. Will. IV. 96; Vict. 

239. 
Pioorr, GiLLBRY. Vict 243. 
Platt, Thomas Joshua. Vict 244. 
Plitmer, Thomas. Geo. IV. 32. 
Pollock, Frederick. Vict 245. 
Post-man in Exchequer, 1 10. 

Queen's Bench. See King's Bench. 
Queen's CounseL See King's Counsel. 

Richards, Richard. Geo. IV. 36. 
Richardson, John. Geo. IV. 37. 
RoLFE, Robert Monsxy, Lord Cran- 

worth. Vict 251. 
Rolls, Masters of the, under Geo. IV. 

2 ; WiU. IV. 58 ; Vict 103. 
RoMiLLY, John. Vict 253. 

St Leonard's, Lord. See E. B. Sugden. 
ScA&LBTr, James, Lord Abinger. Will. 

IV. 96 ; Vict. 255. 
Scott, John, Earl of Eldon. Geo. 

IV. 39. 
Seal, 59. 
Serjeants, 7, 8, 64, 1 16 ; their privi- 

leges abridged, 65; restored, 118; 

finally taken away, 119. 
Shadwell, Lancelot. Geo. IV. 52; 

Will. IV. 96 ; Vict. 261. 
Shee, William. Vict 265. 
Solicitor- Generals, 7, 64, 115. 
Staple Inn, 128. 
Stuart, John. Vict 267. 
SuoDEN, Edward Burtenshaw, Lord 

St Leonard's. Vict 267. 

Talfourd, Thomas Noon. Vict 270. 
Taunton, William Elias. Will. IV. 

96. 
Temple, 125; Inner Temple, 126; 

Middle Temple, 126. 
Tenterden, Lord. See C. Abbott. 
) Terms altered, 56, 



INDEX. 



329 



Thbsioeb* Frkseiiick, Lord Chelms- 
ford. Vict. 274. 

TiNDAL, Nicolas Contngham. Geo. 
IV. 52; Will. IV. 97; Vict. 281. 

Truro, Lord. See T. Wilde. 

Tub-man in Exchequer, 110. 

TuKNKR, Georgb Jambs. Vlct. 287. 

Vaugban, John. Geo. IV. 52 ; Will. 

IV. 98; Vict 288. 
Vice- Chancellors under Geo. IV. 2 ; 

Will. IV. 58 ; Vict. 104. 
VICTORIA. Survey of Reign, 99. 

Watson, Wiluam Hbnrt. Vict 290. 
Wensleydale, Lord. See J. Parke. 



Westbury, Irf)rd. See R. Bethell. 
Westminster Hall, 122. 
WiGHTMAN, William. Vict 292. 
WioRAM, James. Vict. 300. 
Wilde, James Flaisted. Vict 303. 
Wilde, Thomas, Lord Truro. Vict. 

SO5. 
Willes, James Shaw. Vict. 311. 
WILLIAM IV. Suivey of Reign, 

55. 
Williams, Edward Vauqhan. Vict. 

312. 
Williams, John. Will, IV. 98 ; 

Vict 313. 
Wood, George. Geo. IV. 53. 
Wood, William Page. Vict 316. 
Wynford, Lord. See W. D. Best. 



ALPHABETICAL LIST 



OP THE 



JUDGES OF ENGLAND 



From 1066 to 1864, 



DISTmOUISHINO THE REIONS IN WHICH THBT FLOTTSISHED, 
AND THE COURTS pf WHICH THET SAT. 



\* The names of the Judges included in the Tables of the different Courts 
of Chancery and Common Law are printed in Smaix Capitals. 

Those printed in common letter are either supposed Chancellors, 
Justiciers before the complete division of the Courts, Justices of 
Assize, Justices Itinerant, or Justices of Trailbaston. 



VOL. IX. 



EXPLANATION OF THE ABBEEVIATIONS. 



B. R Baion of the Exchequer. 

O. P. Justice of the Common Fleas. 

Ch. R R . . . Chief Baion of the Exchequer. 

Ch. C. p. . . . Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. 

Ch. el R . . . Chief Justice of the King's or Queen's Bench. 

Ch. U. R • . • Chief Justice of the Upper Bench. 

Com. Q. S. • . . Commissioner of the Great SeaL 

CvBS. R R . • Cursitor Baron of the Exchequer. 

JvsT. Justider. 

JvsT. AveL. . • Justidarius Anglin or Chief Justiciaiy. 

Just. Imr. • . • Jostice Itinerant^ or of Assize. 

JvsT. T Justice of Trailhaston. • 

K. B. Justice of the King's or Queen's Bench. 

L. CHAKa . . . Lord Chancellor. 

L. JiTST. A« . . . Lord Justice of the Court of Appeal. 

L. K. Lord Keeper. 

M.R. .... Master of the Rolls. 

U. B Justice of the Upper Bench. 

V. C Vice-ChanceUor. 



ALPHABETICAL LIST 



OF THE 



JUDGES or ENGLAND. 



Just. Itin. . 

C. P.^ !K. lo.f Cn. 

KB. 
B. R 



B. R, 0. P. 
P Just. Itin. 
B. E. . . 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 
B. E. . . 
Just. Itin. 
B. E.J £l. B.J C 



P. 



PJust 

Just. Itin. . . . 

Just. Itin. . . 
M. R., P L. K, 
L. Ohanc. 

C. P 

U. P.f B. E. . . . 

V.O 

Just. Itin. . . 
PL.Chanc. . . . 
Ch.B.E. . . . 
B. E 



Abbingworthj Gilbert de. Hen. m. 

Abbott, Chaklbs, Lord Tenterden. Geo. UL IV. 

WiU. IV. 
Abel, John. Edw. IE. 
Abinger, Lord. See J. Scarlett 
Abnby, Thomas. Geo. IL 
Abrincis, William de. Hen. H. 
Abtndon, Eichabd de. Edw. I. H. 
Acbard, William. Kic. I. 
Ade, Reginald de. Hen. HI. 
Abaks, Riohabd. Geo. U, HI. 
Alan, Abbot of Tewkesbury. John. 
Aland, John Fortescfe, Lord Fortescue. Geo. I. 

n. 

Albemarle, Earl of. See W. de Mandeville. 
Albini, WilKam de. Earl of Arundel. Hen. HI. 
Albini, William de, of Belvoir Castle. Ric, I. 

John. Hen. HI. 
Albini-Brito, William de. Hen. I. 
Alcock, John, Bishop of Ely. Edw. IV. Hen. VII. 

Aldebxtbgh, Richard de. Edw. HI. 

Aldebson, Edward Hall. Will. IV. Vict. 

ALEN90N, John de. Archdeacon of Lisieuz. Ric. I. 

Alen9un, Herbert de. Hen. HI. 

Alexander, Bishop of Lincoln. Steph. 

Alexander, William. Geo. IV. WilL IV. 

Allerthorpe, Lawrence de. Edw. HI. Ric, H. 

Hen. IV. 

z2 



iv ALPHABETICAL LIST 

B. E. Alleth, Jomr. Hen. Vn. VIIL 

K. B Allxboke, Riohabd. Jac. 11. 

B. E Altham, Jaxbs. Jac. I. 

Alvanley, Lord. See R. P. Aidon. 
Jbrt. Itin. . . . Ambly, William. Hen. IIL 

Just Andeley, Maurice de. Hen. HI. 

Ch. C. P. ... AsDBBSON, Edxukd. Eliz. Jac. I. 

Apsley, Lord. See H. Bathuist. 

C. P AitcHEB, John. Inter. Car. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Arden, Ralph de. Rid. 
Just. Itin. . . . Arden, Ralph de. Jolin. 

M. R., Ch. C. P. . Am)en, Richakd Peppzb, Lord Alvanley. Geo. IH. 

B. E Ardemte, John. Hen. VI. 

Ch. B. E., C. P. . Abdkrne, Pbteb. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

Just. Itin. . . . Aresey^ Norman de. Hen. HE. 

L. Chanc . . . Abfastts, Bishop of Helmham and Thetford. 

Will.L 
Just. Itin. . . . Argentine^ Qiles de. Hen. HI. 
Just. Itin.| Just . Argentine, Reginald de, Ric L John. 

Armyn, William. See W. Ermyn. 
Amulph. See Ranulph. 
Arundel, Earl of. See W. de Albini. 
Just. Itin. . . . Arundel, Roger. Ric. L John. 
L. Chanc. . . . AsinrDEL, Thomas de, or Fitz- Alan, Archbishop of 

York and Canterbury. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 
Just. Itin. . . . Ascwardby, Adam de. Hen. HI. 

B. R Ashe, Alan de. Edw. in. 

K.B., CoulG.S. . AsHHURST, William Heney. Geo. HI. 
U. B. .... Asks, Riohabd. Inter. 

P L. K Askeby, Robert de. Edw. H. 

E. B., Com. G. S. Aston, Richabd. Geo. IH. 

Ch.B.E.,C.P. . AsTT, Henet. Edw. HI. Ric. H. 

B. R, C. P., B. E. Atktns, Edwabd. Car. I. Inter. Car. H. 

B. E., Ch. B. R . Atktns, Edwabd. Car. II. Jac. H. 

C. P., Ch. B. R . Atktns, Robebt. Car. H. WiU. HI. 

Just Auberville, William de. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. . . Audley, James de. Hen. HI. 

L. K., L. Chanc. . Audlet, Thomas, Lord. Hen. VIH. 

Just Aumari, Robert de. John. Hen. III. 

Aungerville. See Richard de Bury. 

Just. Itin. . . . Auntreseye, Roger de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Aure, John de. Hen. HI. 

B. E Atleston, Robebt de. Edw. H. HL 

K. B Atloff, William. Eliz. 

f Just, Itin. . . Aymer, Abbot of Chertsey. Hen, H, 



OP THE JUDGES. V 

M. R., P L. K. . ATREimmE, Richard db. Edw. 11. 

P L. K., M. R. . Atrbmynnb, William db, Bishop of Norwich. 

Edw. 11. 
C. P. .... Ayscoghb, William. Hen. VI. 
C. P Atshton, Nicholas. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

B 

Just Itin. . . . Baalun, John de. Hen. III. 

Just. Itin. . . . Baalun, Roger de. Hen. IIL 

Ch. B. E., C. P., Babington, William. Hen. V. VL 

Ch, C. P, 
L. K., L. Chanc. Bacoit, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. 

Alhans. Jac. I. 

K. B Bacon, Francis. Car. I. 

C. P. , , , . Bacon, John. Edw. II. 

L. K .... Bacon, Nicholas. Eliz. 

C. P., KB. . . Bacon, Thomas. Edw. HI. 

M. R Bainbridge, Christopher, Arehbishop of York. 

Hen. Vn. 
L. Chanc. . . . Balbocb, Ralph be, Bishop of London. Edw. I. H. 
L. Chanc. . . . Baldock, Robert de. Edw. IL 

K. B Baldock, Robert. Jac. II. 

Ch. C. P. ... Baldwin, John. Hen. VHL 

B. E Banaster, Thomas. Hen. VL 

Just. Itin. . . . Banastre, Alard. Hen. 11, 

B. E Banister, William. Anne. Geo. L 

B. R .... Banke, Richard. Henry TV. V. 

B. E Banke, Thomas. Hen. VL 

Curs. B. E. . . Banzes, George. Geo. IV. Will. IV. Vict 

Ch. C. P. ... Banks, John. Car. I. 

Just. Itin., B. E. . Bankwell, John de. Edw. I. H. 

K. B Baitkwell, Roger de. Edw. IIL 

P L. K Bardelby, Robert de. Edw. L H. 

Just Bardolf, Hugh. Hen. II. Ric. I. John. 

Curs. B. E. . . . Barker, Edward. Geo. II. 

B. E Barking, Richard de. Hen. HI. 

B, E Barnewell, Thomas. Hen. VII. 

M. R Barons, William, Bishop of London. Hen. VII. 

M. R., L. K. . . Barowe, Thomas. Ric. HI. 

Just. Barre, Richard. Ric. I. John. 

Just. T. ... Barton, John de. Edw. I. 

Just. Basset, Alan. Hen. HI. 

Just. Angl. . . . Basset, Philip. Hen. IIL 
P Just. Angl. . . Basset, Ralph. Hen. I. 
P Just. Angl. . . Basset, Richard. Hen. I. 



vi ALPHABETICAL LIST 

Just Itin. . . . Basset, Simon. Ric. I. 

Jufit Itin., Just . Basset, Thomas. Hen. U. 

P Just .... Basset, Thomas. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin., Just . Basset, William. Hen. H. 

Just Itin. . . . Basset, WilliauL Hen. HI. 

C. P., K. B. . . Basset, Williak. Edw. HE. 

Just Itin. . . . Bassingbome, Humphrey de. John. 

JuPt. Itin. . . . Bastard, William. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Batesfopd, John de. Edw. I. H. 

Just , Ch. Just. . Bathonia, Henkt de. Hen. HI. 

C. P., Com. G. S., Bathurst, Heitbt, Lord Apsley, Earl Bathurst. 

L. Chanc. Geo. HI. 

Bankwell. See J. and R. Bankwell. 

p L. K Baumbitroh, Thomas db. Edw. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Bayeux, John de. Hen. IH. 

K. B , B. R . . Batlet, Joroc. Geo. HI. IV. Will. IV. 

Just. Itin. . . . Baynard, Fulco. Hen. IH. 

K. B Baynard, Robert. Edw. HI. 

Ch. C. P. ... Bealknap, Robert. Edw. HL Ric II. 

Just Beauchamp, Robert de. Hen. IH. 

Just. Itin. . • . Beauchamp, Walter de. Hen. HE. 

B. E Beauchamp, William de. Hen. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Beaffort, Hbnrt, Bishop of Winchester. Hen. 

IV. V. VI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Beaufort, Thohas, Duke of Exeter. Hen. IV. 

C. P Beattmont, Francis. Eliz. 

M. R Beaumont, John. Edw. VI. 

Just. Angl. . . Beaumont, Robert de. Earl of Leicester. Hen. H. 

L. Chanc. . . . Beceet, Thomas, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Hen. n. 

Just. Itin., C. P. . Beckingham, Elias de. Edw. I. 

C. P., Ch. C. P. . Bedinofield, Henry. Jac. H. 

C. P Bedingfieu), Thomas. Car. L 

PL. K Bek, Thomas, Bishop of St David's. Edw. I. 

B. E Beler, Roger. Edw. H. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Belet, Michael. Hen. H. Ric. I. John. 

B. E Belet, Michael. Hen. HI. 

Ch. B. E. ... Bell, Robert. Eliz. 

Just. Itin. . . . Bella Fago, Roger de. Edw. I. 

Just Bendings, William de. Hen. H. 

Benefacta, Richard. See Richard Fitz -Gilbert. 

L. K. or V. C. . . Benet. Ric. I. 

P L. K , C. P. . . Benstede, John de. Edw. I. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Bereford, Ralph de. Edw. III. 

Just. Itin. . . . Bereford, Richard de. Edw. II. 



OF THE JUDGES. 



VU 



Just. Itin., C. P., 

Ch. C. P. 
Just. Itin. 
B. E. . . 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 
KB.. . 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin.^ Just. . 
B. lBj,f C. P. . . 
Just. Itin. . . . 
K. B., Ch. C. P. . 

L. Chanc. . . . 
Just. Itin. . . . 
M. R., Com. G. S. 

? L. Chanc. . . . 
Just. Angl. . . . 

Just 

Just. Itin. . . . 
K. B.^ Ch. K. B. . 
KB 

B. E 

Curs. B. E. . . . 

C. P 

KB 

K. B.^ C X. . . 

B. E 

B. E 

B. E.^ C/. P. . 

B. E 

L. Chanc.; Just. 

Angl. 
Just. . . 
M. R.. . 
Just Itin., Just. 
Just. . . . 
? Just. Angl. 
Just. Itin. . 
Just. Itin. . 
Just. Itin. . 

Just. Itin. . 
B. E. . . . 



BebeposD; William db. Edw. I. XL 

Berewyk, John de. Edw. L IE. 

Berkeley^ Amald de. Hen. HE. 

Berkeley, Maurice de. Ric. I, 

Berkeley, Robert de. John. 

Bebkeley, Robert. Car. I. 

Bemingham, Richard de. Edw. 11. 

Berstede, Walter de. Hen. IH. 

Berub, Verb. Car. H. 

Bertram, Roger de. Hen. HL 

Best, William Dbapeb, Lord Wynford. Geo. lU. 

IV. 
Bethell, Richabd, Lord Westbury. Vict. 
Beynvill, Richard de. Hen. III. 
Bickersteth, Heitry, Lord Langdale. Will. IV. 

Vict. 
Bidun, Walter de. Hen. IL 
BiaoT, Hugh. Hen. IH. 

Bigot, Roger, 2nd Earl of Norfolk. Ric. L John. 
Bigot, Roger, 4th Earl of Norfolk. Hen. HI. 
BrLLiNa, Thomas. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 
Bingham, Richard. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 
Birch, John. Eliz. 
Birch, John. Geo. U, 
Birch, Thomas. Geo. H. 
Blackbttrn, Colin. Vict. 
Blackstone, William. Geo. HL 
Blagge, Robert. Hen. VHL 
Blaston, Thomas de. Edw. HI. 
Blencowe, John. Will. HI. Anne. Geo, I. 
Blockley, John de. Edw. HI. 
Bloet, Robebt, Bishop of Lincoln. Will. II, 

Hen. I. 
Blundevil, Ranulph, Earl of Chester. Ric. I. 
Blyth, John, Bishop of Salisbury. Hen. VI. 
Bobi, Hugh de. Ric. I. John. 
Bocland, Geoffrey de. Ric. I. John. Hen. IH. 
Bocland, Hugh de. Hen. I. 
Bocland, Hugh de. Hen. H. 
Bohun, Humphrey de. Earl of Hereford. Hen. HI. 
Bolebec, Hugh de. Hen. HL 
Bolingbroke, Earl of. See O. St John. 
Bolingbroke, Nicholas de. Edw. H. 
BoLLAND, William. Geo. IV. WiU. IV. Vict. 



yiii ALPHABETICAL LIST 

B. E. Boiinffo, William. Hen. VUU VIIL 

Just. Bonquer, William. Hen. HL 

L. Chanc. . . . Booth, Lawbbnce, Archbialiop of York. Edw, 

IV. 

Just., B. £. . . . BoBEHAM, Habyet de. Hen. HL Edw. L 

C. P., Com. G. 8. BosAHQUET, John Bsbnabd. Geo. IV. WilL IV. 

Vict. 

P Just. Itin, . . . BoscehaU, William de. Hen, HI. 

Just. Itin. . . • Bosco^ John de. Edw. I. 

Just Itin. . . . Boteler, Alexander le. Hen. H. 

0. P BoTELBB, JoHK. Hen. VII. Vin. 

Just. Itin. . . . Boteler, Nicholas le. Hen. IH. 

Just. T Botetourt, John de. Edw. I. 

B. K BouDON, William de. Edw. IH. 

BoTJBCHiEB. See J. and B. Bousser. 

L. K BoTTBCHiEB, Henby, Earl of Essex. Edw. IV. 

L. Chanc. . . . Boubchteb, Thomab, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Hen. VI. 

C. P BouBiTE, William de. Edw. H. 

C. P BoussEB, John de. Edw. H. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Bousseb, Kobebt de. Edw. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Boyin^n, Walter de. John. 

M. R Bowes, Robebt. Edw. VI. Mary. 

Just. Itin. . . . Boyland, Richard de. Edw. I. 

P Just Itin., E. B., Bbabazon, Rogeb le. Edw. I. H 

Ch. K B. 

Just Itin. . . . Braboef, WiUiam de. Edw. L 

Brackley, Lord. See T. Egerton. 

Just. Itin., Just. Bbacton or Bbetton, Henbt de. Hen. HI. 

Curs. B. E. . . Bbadbtjby, Geoboe. WilL HI. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Bbadshaw, Heitrt. Edw. VI. 

Com. G. S. . . Bbadshaw, John. Inter. 

Just Itin. . . . Braiosa, William de. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

B. E Bbamston, Fbancis. Car. II. 

Ch. K. B. . . . Bbamston, John. Car. I. 

B. E Bbamwell, Geoboe William. Vict. 

P L. K or V. C. . Bbancestbe John de. John. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Braybroc, Henry de. Hen. IH. 

Just. Itin. . . . Braybroc, Robert de. John. 

L. Chanc. . . . Bbaybboke, Robebt de, Bishop of London. Ric. n« 

? L. K Bbayton OB Dbayton, Thomas de. Edw. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . Breaute, Faukes de. Hen. IH. 

C. P Bbenchesley, William. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 

K. B Bbebewood, Robebt. Car. I. 

Just Breton, John le, Bishop of Hereford. Hen. HI. 



4» 



OF THE JUDGES. IX 

Just. T Breton, John le. £dw. I. 

Just. Itin.^ Just . Breton, William le. Hen. III. 

Bretton. See H. de Bracton. 
CI1.B.E., CkCR, Brldgemabt, Orlahdo. Car, II. 

L. K. 
Just. Itin. . . . Brito^ Ralph. Hen. 11. 
? L. Chanc. . . Brito, Eanulph. Hen. HI. 
Just. Itin. . . . Brito^ Richard. Ric. I. 

Brito. See W. le Breton. 
Just. Itin., Just. Briwer, William. Hen. H. Ric. I. John. Hen. 

HI. 

Just Briwes, John de. John. 

B. E Bboclesbt, William de. Edw. HL 

Just. Brok, Laurence del. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Brome, Adam de. Edw. HI. 

B. E Bromley, Edward. Jac. I., Car. I. 

K B., Ch. K. B. . Bromley, Thomas. Hen. VHI. Edw. VI. Mary. 

L. Chanc. . . . Bromley, Thomas. EHz. 

C. P. .... Brompton, William de. Edw. I. 
Ch. B. E. . . . Brook, David. Mary. 

C. P., Ch. B. E. . Brooke, Richard. Hen. VHI. 

Ch. C. P. . . , Brooke, Robert. Mary. 

L. Chanc. . . . Brougham, Henry, Lord. Will. IV. 

B. E Brown, Robert. Edw. VI. Mary. EHz. 

Ch. C. P., C. P. . Browne, Anthony. Mary, Eliz. 

C. P Browne, Humphrey. Hen. VHL Edw. VI. 

Mary. Eliz. 

Com. G. S., K. B., Browne, Samuel. Car. I. IL 

C. P. 

M. R Bruce, Edward, Lord Einloss. Jac. I. 

V. C, L. Just. A. Bruce, James I^wis Knight. Vict. 

K. B., C. P., Ch. Brudenell, Robert. Hen. VEL VIH. 

C. P. 

K. B Brxtndish, Robert. Edw. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . Brus, Peter de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Brus, Peter de (his son). Hen. HI. 

Just., Ch. K. B., . Brus, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

Ch. C. P. . . . Bryan, Thomas. Edw. IV. V. Ric. HI. Hen. 

vn. 

M. R. , . ^ . BuBBEwiTH, Nicholas, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

Hen. IV. 
B. E BuKYNGHAM, JoHN DE. Bishop of Lincoln. Edw. 

m. 

K. B., C. P. . . BuLLER, Francis. Geo. HI. 

Just. AngL . . Burgh, Hubert de, Earl of Kent John. Hen. m. 



Z ALPHABETICAL LIST 

P L. K BuROH, JlroH de. £dw. IL 

C. P. .... Burgh, William. Ric. n. 
L. Chanc. . . . Buroilersh^ Henbt de^ Bisliop of Lmcoln. 

Edw. nL 

B. E BURLAND, JOHK. Greo. III. 

L. Chanc. . . . Burxell, Robert, BbHop of Bath and Wells. 

Edw. L 

C. P BuRXET, Thomas. Geo. II. 

Juftt. T Burnham, Thomas de. Edw. L 

Jufit. Itin. . . . BurntoD, William de. Edw. I. 

C. P. .... BuRROUGH, James. Geo. lEL IV. WilL IV. 

F L. K| M. R. . BuRSTALL, William de. Edw. m. Ric. IL 

M. R. .... Burton, Johk de. Ric. IL 

L. Chanc. . . . Burt, Richard de, or AungemUei Bishop of Dur- 
ham. Edw. in. 

B. E., Ch. B. E. . Bury, Thomas. WilL ITL Anne. Geo. L 

C. P Byles, Johk Barnard, Vict. 

L. Chanc. . . . Btnteworth, Richard de, Bishop of London. 

Edw. ni. 

PL. K Byrlay, William de. Edw. L 

Just. T Byrun, John de. Edw. I. 

C 

P L. K Caen, John de. Edw. I. 

M. R CiBSAR, Charles. Car. I. 

M. R C-KSAR, Julius. Jac. I. Car. I. 

Curs. B. E. . . Cjbsar, Thomas. Jac. I. 

Just Caleto, John de, or de Caux. Hen. UI. 

C. P Calowe, William. Hen. VH. 

Just. Itin. . . . Cambhou, Walter de. Edw. I. 

Camden, Earl. See C. Pratt. 
Ch.E.B.,L. Chanc. Campbell, John, Lord. Vict. 
Just. Itin. . . . Camyill, Gerald de. John. 
P Just. .... Camyill, Thomas de. Hen. IH. 

C. P Cantebrig, John de. Edw. HI. 

B. E Cantebrig, Thomas de. Edw. IL 

Cantilupe, Simon de. See S. Normannus. 
L. Chanc. . . . Cantilupe, Thomas de, Bishop of Hereford. Hen. i 

m. 

Just. Itin. . . . Cantilupe Walter de. Bishop of Worcester. Hen. 

in. 

Just., Just. Itin. . Cantilupe, William de. John. Hen. HL 

Just. Angl. . . Carilepo, William de. Bishop of Durham. Will. 

n. 

B. E Carlbton, William de. Edw. 1. IL 

I 
\ 



OF THE JUDGES. XI 

Curs. B. E. . . Cabb, William. Jac. n. Will. m. 

B. E Cabter, Laxjeence. Geo. L II. 

K. B Carus, Thomas. Eliz. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Cart, John. Ric. IL 

Ch. B. E. ... Gassy, John. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 

C.P Catesby, John. Edw. IV. V. Ric. III. Hen. 

vn. 

C. P., Ch. K. B. Catlin, Robert. Mary. Eliz. 

Caox. See J. de Caleto. 

Just. Itin. . . . Cave, Hugh de. Edw. I. 

Just. .... Cave, John de. Hen. HI. 

K. B Cave, John de. Edw. I. 

C. P., Ch. K. B. . Cavendish, John de. Edw. HL Ric. H. 

Just. .... Caxton, Jeremiah de. Hen. HL 

Com. G. S. . . Cecil, William, Earl of Salisbury. Car. I. 

Just Cestreton, Adam de. Hen. HI. 

? L. K Chaceporc, Peter. Hen. HI. 

K. B., C. P. . . Chambeblayne, Thomas. Jac. I. Car. I. 

B. E., C. P. . . Chambbe, Alan. Geo. HI. 

B. E Channel, William Fby. Vict. 

Just. .... Chanvill, William de. Ric. I. 

K. B Chapple, William. Geo. IL 

C. P Chableton, Job. Car. 11, Jac. H. 

Ch. C. P. . . . Chableton, Robebt de. Ric. H. 

Just.' .... Chastillon, Henry de. Ric. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Chaucomb, Hugh de. John. 

Just. Itin. . •. . Chaynel, John. Edw. H. 

Chelmsford, Lord. iS5ec F. Thesiger. 
? Just. Itin., B. E. Chester, Peter de. Hen. HI. Edw. L 
K. B., Ch. K. B. Cheyne, William. Hen. V. VI. 
L. K Chishtjll, John de. Bishop of London. Hen. 

m. 

C.P Choke, Richard. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. V. 

Ric. IIL 
Ch. B. E.,Ch.K. B. Cholmley, Rogeb. Hen. Vm. Edw. VI. 

M. R Chxjbchill, John. Car. H. Jac. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Clahaul, Hugh de. Hen. III. 

P Just. Itin. . . . Clare, Roger de, Earl of Clare. Hen. H. 

P Just. Itin. . . . Clarembald, Abbot of St. Augustine, Canterbury. 

Hen. H, 
Clarendon, Earl of. See E. Hyde. 

B. E Clabke, Charles. Geo. H. 

B. E Clabke, Robert. Eliz. Jac. L 

M. R Clarke, Thomas. Geo. H. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Claver, John. Edw. HI^ 



'-». 






t. Geo. 



'W and 



^^. HI. 
Canter- 



I en. in. 



* minster. 



^- Hen, 



Xll 



ALPHABETICAL LIST 



Jufit Itm. 
B* £.| K* B« 
Just. Itin. . 
B. E. . . 
M. R. . . 

Just. Itin. . 

P L. K.^ M.R.y Jm K. 

P Just. Itin. 
B.E.. . . 
P Just. Angl. 
B* £«y C. P. 
Cure. B. E. 
Ch. KB. . 
Just. Itin. . 
Just . . . 
Just Itin., Just, 

P K. B. or C. P., 

B. E. 
Just Itin. 
Just Itin. 
Ch. C. P., Ch. K B. 
Ch. B. E., C. P. . 
Ch.C.P.,Ch.K.B. 
C.P. . 
Just . . 
Just Itin. 
C.P. . 
M. R. . 
K. B. . 
Just 

Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 
C.P. . 
Just. Itin. 
P Just Itin. 
B. E., C. P., Ch. 

B. E. 

KB 

KB 

V. C, Just. Angl., 

Just. 
L. Chanc. . . . 



Clay, iStephen de. John. 

Clench, Johit. Eliz. 

Clerk, John le. Hen. IL 

Clerke, Jokw. Hen. VL Edw. IV. 

Clerke, John, Bishop of Bath and Wells. Heu. 

VIIL 
Cliderhow, Robert de. Edw. H. 
Clot, Henbt de. Edw. IL m. 
Cliff, William db. Edw. n. 
Clifford, Roger de. Hen. IH. Edw. I. 
CUfford, WiUiam de. Hen. HI. 
Clinton, Geoffrey de. Hen. I. 
Clive, Edward. Geo. H. HI. 
Clivb, George. Geo. H. 
Clopton, Walter de. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 
Cobbeham, Henry de. Hen. HI. 
Cobbeham, John de. Hen. HL 
Cobbeham, John de (his son). Hen. HI. Edw. I. 



Cobbeham, Reginald. Hen. IH. 
Cobbeham, William de. Hen. HI. 
CocKBURN, Alexander J. E. Vict. 
CoKATNE, John. Hen. IV. V. VI. 
Coke, Edward. Jac. L 
Coke, William. Edw. VI. 
Cokefield, John de. Hen. HI. 
Cokefield, Robert de. Hen. HL 
COLEFEFER, JoHN. Hen. IV. V. 
CoLEFEPER, John, Lord. Car. I. H. 
Coleridge, John Taylor. WilL IV. Vict 
ColeviDe, Gilbert de. Hen. H. 
Coleville, Henry de. Hen. HI. 
Colneye, William de. Edw. H, 
CoLTMAN, Thomas. Vict 
Columbiers, Gilbert de. Hen. H. 
Columbiers, Matthew de. Hen. HI. Edw. I. 
CoMYNS, John. Geo. I. H. 

CoNiNGSBY, Humphrey. Hen. VLll. 
CoNiNGBBY, William. Hen. VHI. 
CoNSTANTiis, Walter de, Archbishop of Rouen. 

Hen. n. Ric. I. 
Cooper, Anthony Ashley, Earl of Shaftesbury. 

Car. n. 



OF THE JUDGES. Xlli 

M. E., L. Chanc, Copley, John Singleton, Lord Lyndhurst. Geo. 

Ch. B. E., L. IV. Will. IV. 

Chanc. 

K. B Corbet, Reginald. Eliz. 

M. R CoBDELL, William. Mary. Eliz. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Comhill, Gervase de. Hen. 11. 

Just Comhill, Reginald de. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Comhill, William de. Bishop of Lichfield and 

Coventry. John. 
Cornwall, Earl of. See Robert. 

B. E CossALE, William de. Edw. HI. 

C. P., Ch. C. P. . CoTESMORE, John. Hen. VI. 

Cottenham, Earl of. See C. C. Pepys. 

? L. K COTYNGHAM, ThOMAS DE. Edw. HI. 

C. P Coventry, Thomas. Jac. I. 

L. K Coventry, Thomas, Lord. Car. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Courteneye, Hugh de, E.vl of Devon. Edw. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Courteneye, William de. Archbishop of Canter- 
bury. Ric. n. 

C. P CowPER, Spencer. Geo. H. 

L. K., L. Chanc. . Cowper, William, Earl. Anne. Geo. I. 

Cranworth, Lord. See R. M. Rolfe. 

P L. K Crasstjs, Richard, Abbot of Evesham. Hen. IH. 

? L. K Craucombe, John de. Edw. I. 

C. P Crawley, Francis. Car. I. 

Curs. B. E. . . . Crawley, Francis (his son). Car. H. 

P Just. Itin. . . Crepping, Richard de. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Crepping, Walter de. Ric. I. John. 

C. P Cresheld, Richard. Car. I. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Cressi, Hugh de. Hen. 11, 

Just. Itin. . . . Cressi, William de. Hen. IH. 

Just. T Cressi, William de. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Cressingham, Hugh de. Edw. L 

C. P Cresswell, Cresswell. Vict. 

Ch. KB. . . . Crewe, Ranulph. Jac. I. Car. I. 

B. E Criol, Nicholas de. Hen. HI. 

C. P., KB. . . Croke, George. Jac. L Car. I. 
K. B Croke, John. Jac. I. 

Just. Itin. . * . . Crokedayk, Adam de. Edw. L 
P Just. Itin. . . . Crokesley, John de. Edw. I. 

B. E Crokesley, Richard de. Abbot of Westminster. 

Hen. in. 

K. B Crompton, Charles. Vict. 

M. R.. . . . . Cromwell, Thomas, Lord, Earl of Ebboz. Hen. 

vni. 



xiv ALPHABETICAL LIST 

C. P Crowdrr, Richard Buddkn. Vict. 

Just Culeworth, Williiun de. Hen. m. 

Just I tin., Just. . Cumin, John, Archbishop of Dublin. Hen. H. 

B. E CuRsoN, Robert. Edw. VI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Cuserugge, Baldwin de. Ric. I 



D 

Just Itin. . . . Daivill, John de. Hen. HI. 

K. B Dalison, William. Mary. Eliz. 

C. P., Ch. C. P. . Dallas, Robert. Geo. HI. IV. 

P Just Itin. . . Dammartin, Manaserius de. Hen. II. 

K. B Dakpier, Heutrt. Geo. IH. 

B. E Daw aster, John. Hen. \TII. 

C. P., Ch. C. P. . Danbt, Robert. Hen. \T Edw. IV. 
C. P. Daniel, William. Jac. L 

C. P Dahvers, Robert. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

C. P Danvers, William. Hen. VH. 

B. E. Darnall, Johk. Edw. VI. 

Just Davencester, Philip de. Hen. H. 

C. P., Ch. B. E. . Davenport, Humphrey. Car. I. 

Ch. C. P. . . . De Grey, Wilucam, Lord Walsingham. Geo. HI. 

C. P Delves, John de. Edw. HI. 

L, K. Dene, IIenry, Archbishop of Canterbury. Hen. 

VII. 

P Just Itin. . . . Dene, Ralph de. Hen. H. 

B. E Denham, John. Jac. I. Car. I. 

K. B Denison, Thomas. Geo. IL IH. 

Ch. KB.... Denman, Thomas, Lord. Will. IV. Vict 

B. E Denny, Edmxtnd. Hen. VHI. 

C.P. Denton, Alexander. Geo. I. H. 

B. E., P K B. . , Denxtm, William de. Edw. m. 

B. E Derby, Willlam. Hen. VI. 

Just Itin.| Just Despencer, Hugh le. Hen. IH. 
AngL 

Devon, Earl of. See H. de Courteneye. 

Just. T,, Just Itin. D'Eyncourt, Edmund. Edw. I. H 

M. R DieoES, Dudley. Car. I. • 

L. K DioHTON, William de. Ric. H. 

B. E DrxoN, Nicholas. Hen. VI. 

Ch. B. £. . . . DoDD, Samuel. Geo. I. 

K. B DoDERiBOE, John. Jac. I. Car. I. 

K. B DoLBEN, WiLLLiM. Car. n. Will IH. 

Just. Itin., C. P. . DONOABTER, JoHN DE. Edw. H. 

C. p. DoBMEBy Robert. Anne. Geo L 



OF THE JUDGES. XV 

Dorset^ Earl of. See Osmund. 

B. E DouBRiDGE^ William. Ric. II. 

Jufit. Itin. . . . Dover^ John de. Hen. IE. 

Drayton. See T. de Brayton. 

B. E Drayton, Nicholas db. Edw. III. Kic. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Droes, Hugh de. Hen. IH. 

PL. K Dbogo. Will. n. 

P L. K Drokenesford, John de, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

Edw. I. 
Just Itin. . . . Duket, Richard. Hen. HI. 
Just Itin. . . . Duredent, Walter. Hen. IH. 

B. E DuREM, John. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

C. P., K. B., Ch. Dyer, James. Mary. Eliz. 
C.P. 

B. E Dtmock, Andrew. Hen. VH. 

PK.B Dyve, William de. Edw. 11. 

E 

Just. Itin. . . . Ehroicis, Stephen de. Hen. HI. 

? L. K Edenestowe, Henry de. Edw. IH. 

KB Edenham, Geoffrey de. Edw. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Edinoton, William de. Bishop of Winchester. 

Edw. m. 
M. R., L. K, L. Egerton, Thomas, Lord Ellesmere, Viscount 
Chanc Brackley. EHz. Jac. I. 

Eldon, Earl of. See J. Scott. 

B. E Elerius, Abhot of Pershore. Hen. HI. 

C. P Eliot, Richard. Hen. VIH. 

M. R Eliot, William, Hen. VII. 

Ellenborough, Lord. See E. Law. 
Ellesmere, Lord. See T. Egerton. 
P Just. Itin. . . Ellesworth, Simon de. Edw. I. 

B. E " Ellk, WmjAM. Hen. VHI. 

C. P Ellis, William. Car. H. 

L.K.,L. Chanc. . Ely, Nicholas de, Bishop of Winchester. Hen. m. 

B. E. .... Ely, Ralph de. Hen. HI. 

Just Ely, William de. John. 

Just Itin, . . . Engaine, Warner. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Englefield, Alan de. Hen. HI. 

C. P ENeLEFiELD, Thomas. Hen. VXH. 

Just Itin., P Just. Englefield, William de. Hen. IH^ 

Just Erdington, Giles de. Hen. IH. 

C. P., K. B., Ch. Erlb, William. 'S^ct. 
C.P. 



XVI 



ALPHABETICAL LIST 



B.E. . . 

Ch. C. p. 
L. Chanc 
C. P. . . 

Just Itin. 
Just Itin. 
Just Itin. 
PJust. . 



Just Itin. 

V. C, L. Ohanc . 

B. E 

L. K. or L. Chanc, 
Just. Itin. 

B. E 

P L. K., M. R. . . 
Just. Itin. . . . 
B.E 

Just Itin. . . . 

KB 

B. E.| Cn. B. E.^ 

Obm. G. S., Ch. 

C. P. 
K. B.^ Ch. B. E.y 

Ch. C. P. 
KB 



Ebmyit, or AsMYVf William., Hen. IV. 

Ebkle^ John. Hen. VIII. 

Ebskin^E; Thomas, Lord. G^o. III. 

Erskine, Thoxas. Vict 

Escuris, Matthew de. Hen. IL 

Espec, Walter. Hen. I. 

Esseby, Jordan de. Hen. TTT. 

Esseby, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

Essex, Earls of. See G. de Mandeyille; W. de 

Mandeyille; G. Pitz-Peter; H. Bourchierj T. 

Cromwell. 
Essex, Henry de. Hen. H. 
Eustace, Bishop of Ely. Rich. I. 
EvEBDON, John de. Edw. H. 
Etebdon, Sylvester de, Bishop of Carlisle. 

Hen. in. 
Eterdon, WnxiAM db. Edw. IL HI. 
Ey;BSHAK, "Thomas de. Edw. HI. 
Evesk, Henry de. Hen. HI. 
EwENS, Matthew. Eliz. 
Exeter, Duke of. See T, Beaufort. 
Eynefield, Henry de. Edw. I. 
Eyre, Giles. Will. HL 
Eyre^ James. G^o. HI. 



Eyrb^ Robert. Anne, Geo. I., H. 



i 



Eybb, Samitel. Will. HI. 



KB '. Faibpax, Guy. Edw.IV.V. Rich.m. Hen.VH. 

0. P Faibpax, William. Hen, VHI. 

Just Faleise, William de. John. 

B. E. Fallait, William. Hen. VL 

Just Itin. . . . Fastolf, Nicholas. Edw. HI. 

Just Fauconbridgei Eustace de, Bishop of London. John. 

Hen. HL 

KB Faxjwt, William. Edw. HL 

C. P. . . . . . Fbitcotes, Thomas de. Edw. HI. 

K. B. . . . . • FEmnsB^ Edwabd. Eliz. Jac. I. 

Just Itin. . t . Fermbaud, Nicholas. Edw. I. 

B. E Fbbbiby Thomas. Hen. IV. 

Just Itin. . . . Ferte, Ralph de la. Hen. HI. 



OP THE JUDGES. XVll 

Com. G. S. . . . FiENNES, NATHAifiEL. Liter. 

L. K, L. Chanc. . Finch, Heneage, Earl of Nottingham. Car. 11. 

Ch. C. P., L. K, . Finch, John, Lord. Car. L 

C. P., Ch. K. B. . FiNEux, John. Hen. VII. VIII. 

Just. Itin. . , . Fishebume, Thomas de. Edw. I. II. 

C. P FiSHEK, John. Hen. VH. VIH. 

Just Fitz-Ailwyn, Henry. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Alan, Brian. Hen. HI. 

Fitz-Alan, Thomas. See T. de Arundel. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Alan, William. Ric. I. 

Just Fitz-Aldelm, William. Hen. H. Eic. I. 

Just Fitz-Alexander, Nigel. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Alured, Richard. Hen. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Bemard, Robert. Hen. II. 

Just Itin., Just. . Fitz-Bemard, Thomas. Hen. H. 

Just Itin. . , . Fitz-Emise, Philip. Hen. H. 

Just. Fitz-Gerold, Henry, Hen. H. 

Just Angl. . . FiTz-GiLBEBT, Richard. W^l. I. 

? Just. Itin. . . Fitz-Helton, William. Hen. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Henry, Ranulph. Hen. HI. 

C. P Fitz-Herbert, Anthony. Hen. VHI. 

Just. Itin. , . . Fitz-Herbert, Mathew. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Hervey, Henry. Ric. I. John. 

Just Fitz-Hervey, Osbert. Hen. II. Ric. I. John. 

Just Fitz-Hugh, John. John. 

KB. andCh.B.E., Fitz-James, John. Hen. VIH. 

Ch. K B. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Fitz- Joel, Warren. Hen. IH. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz- John, Eustace. Hen. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-John, Pain. Hen. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-John, Thomas. Hen. III. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-John, William. Hen. II. 

Just Fitz-Martin, William. Hen. H. 

Just Fitz-Nigel, or Fitz-Neale, Richard, Bishop of Lon- 
don. Hen. n. Ric. I. 

? Just Itin. . . Fitz-Nigel, or Fitz-Neale, William. Hen. H. 

Just Fitz-Oger, Oger. Ric. I. 

Just. Angl. . . FiTz-OsBERNE, William, Earl of Hereford. Will. I. 

Just. Itin., Just, Fitz-Peter, Geoffrey, Earl of Essex. Ric. I. 

Just Angl. John. 

Just Fitz-Peter, Simon. Hen. H. 



? Just Itin, 
Just. Itin., Just. 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 



Fitz-Ralph, Gerold. Hen. H. 
Fitz-Ralph, William, Hen. H. 
Fitz-Ranulph, Ralph. Hen. HI. 
Fitz-Reginald, Ralph. Hen. HI- 



YOL. IX. A A 



• • • 



XVUl ALPHABETICAL LIST 

Just Itin., Just . Fitz-Heinfirid, Koger. Hen. U. Ric. L 

Just Itin. . . Fitz- Richard^ William. Hen. II. John. 

Just. ItJn., P B. E. Fitz-Roberty John. Hen. IH. 

Just Itin. . . . Fitz-Roberty Philip. Ric. I. 

Just Itin. • . . Fitz-Robert, Ranulph. Hen. HI. 

P L. K, or V. C. . FiTz-RoBBET, or Db Wells, Simon, Bishop of 

Chichester. John. 

Just Itin., Just., Fitz-Robert, Walter. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

Just Itin. 

Just Itin. . . . fltz-Robert, Walter. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin., Just . Fitz-Roger, Robert. Ric L John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Roger, William. Hen. IH. 

Just Itin. . . . Fitz-Roscelin, William. Hen. HL 

Just Fitz-Simon, Osbert Ric. I. 

Just Itin. . . . Fitz-Simon, Richard. Hen. IH. 

Just Itin., Just . Fitz-Simon, Turstin. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin., Just . Fitz-Stephen, Ralph. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

Just. Itin., Just • Fitz-Stephen, William. Hen. H. Ric L 

Just. Itin. . . . Fitz-Torold, Nicholas. Hen. H. 

P Just Fitz-Warine, Fulco. Hen. Ill 

Just Itin. . . , Fitz-Warine, William. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin., Just. . Fitz- William, Adam. Hen. HL 

Just Itin. . . . Fitz-William, Hugh. Hen. HI. 

Just .... Fitz- William, Osbert. Ric I. 

Just .... Fitz -William, Otho. Ric. I. 

Just T Fitz- William, Ralph. Edw. L 

Just Itin. . . , Fitz-William, Robert. Hen. HI. 

PJustAngl. . . Flambaed, Rantjlph, Bishop of Durham. Will. U. 

Just Flandrensis, Richard. Ric. I. John. 

Ch.B. E.,Ch.KB. Fleming, Thomas. Jac I. 

B. E Flowebdew, Edwabd. Eliz. 

Just Foliot, Hugh, Abbot of Ramsey, Bishop of Hereford. 

Hen. HL 

Just Itin. . , . Foliot, Walter. Hen. IH. 

B. E FoBD, William. Ric H. Hen. IV. 

Ch. K. B. . . , FoBTESciTE, John. Hen. VI. 

B. E FoETBSOUE, Lewis. Hen. VHI. 

Fortescue, Lord. See J. F. Aland. 

B. E., C. P., M. R. FoETBScuB, William. Geo. H. 
K. B Fosteb, Michael. Geo. H. IH. 

C. P., Ch. K. B. Fosteb, Robebt. Car. I. H. 

C. P Fosteb, Thomas. Jac. I. 

Com. G. S. . . Foxtntaine, John. Inter. 

B. E FoxLE, John de. Edw. II. 

? B. E Feampton, Robebt. Hen. VI. 



OF THE JUDGES. XIX 

Just Itin. . . . Franchevill, William de. Hen. III. 

M. R., ? L. K. . Frank John. Hen. VI. 

B. E., ? Just. . , Fraunceys, John le. Hen. III. 

? L. K Fraunceys, John. Edw. 11. 

B. E., Ch. B. E. . Fray, John. Hen. VI. 

C. P Freningham, Ralph de. Edw. I. 

B. E Freville, George. Eliz. 

B. E., C. P., K. B. Friskeney, Walter de. Edw. II. IIL 

Ch. C. P. . . . Frowtk, Thomas. Hen. VII. 

? L. K Fryston, Richard. Edw. IV. 

B. E Fttlburn, William de. Edw. H. HI. 

Just, C. P. . . . FuLCON, Robert. Hen. HI. Edw. I. 

C. P Ftjlthorpe, Roger de. Edw. III. Ric. II. 

C. P Ftjlthorpe, Thomas. Hen. VI. 

Just Fumellis, Alan de. Hen. H. 

Just Fumellis, Henry de. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Fumellis, Simon de. Hen. III. 

Juflt. Itin. . . . Fumellis, William de. John. 

0. P., Oh. 0. P. . Fyncheden, William de. Edw. HI. 

G. 

Just ; Gaerst, Hugh de. Hen. II. 

L. Chanc. . . . Galdric. Will. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Gant, Maurice de. Hen. III. 

L. Chanc. . . . Gant, Robert de. Steph. 

L. Chanc. . . . Gardiner, Stephen, Bishop of Winchester. Mary. 

Just. Itin. . . . Garland, John de. Ric. I. 

B. E Garrow, William. Geo. IH. IV. WilL IV. 

B. E Garton, Thomas de. Edw. III. 

Ch. KB. . . , Gascoigne, William. Hen. IV. 

C. P Gaselee, Stephen. Geo. IV. Will. IV. Vict. 

B. E Gates, Thomas. Car. I. Inter. 

? Just .... Gatesden, John de. Hen. IH. 

M. R Gatjnstede, Simon. Hen. V. VI. 

K. B., Ch. C. P. . Gawdy, Francis. Eliz. Jac. I. 

KB Gawdy, Thomas. Eliz. 

Just Gedding, Ralph de. Hen. II. 

B. E Gent, Thomas. Eliz. 

Just Itin. . . . Geoflfrey, Archdeacon of Berks. Ric. L 

? Just Angl. . . Geoffrey, Bishop of Coutance. Will. I. 

? L. K Geoffrey, the Templar. Hen. HI. 

M. R Gerard, Gilbert. Eliz. 

Just. Itin. . . . Geraemue, Adam de. Hen. II. 

Just Itin. . . . Gemum, Ralph. Hen. III. 

Just Gestling, John de. Ric. I. John. Hen. IH. 

a A 2 



XX ALPIIABETICAL LIST 

P Just .... Qibbewin^ Gebffirey. Hen. m. 

C. P., Ch. B. E., GiBBS, ViCABT. Geo. m, 

Ch. C. P. 

L.GhaiLyJiist.Itin. Giffard^ Godfbet, Bishop of Worcester. Hen. 

IIL Edw. L 

P Just .... Giffard, Hugh. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin. • . . Giffard, Richard. Hen. H. 

L. Chanc. . . . Giffabd, WalteB| Archbishop of York. Hen. III. 

L. Chanc . . . Gifford, Williaic, Bishop of Winchester. WilL 

L n. Hen. I. 

Ch. C. P., M. R . Gifford, Robert, Lord. Geo. IV. 

B. £., Com. G. S., Gilbert, Jkffbrt. Geo. I. 
Ch. B. E. 

C. P GisELHAM, William be. Edw. I. 

P Just Itin. . . Glanyille, Bartholomew. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin., Just. . Glanyille, Gilbert de, Bishop of Rochester. Ric. I. 

C. P Glakyille, Johk. Eliz. 

Just .... Glanyille, Osbert de. Hen. H. 

Just Itin., Just, Glakyille, Rantlph be. Hen. H. Ric. L 

Just AngL 

Just .... GlanyiUe, William de. Ric. L 

Just Itin. . . . Gloucester, Milo de. Earl of Hereford. Hen. I. 

Just Itin., B. R . Gloucester, Walter be. Edw. H. 

Ch. U. B. ... Gltkne, John. Inter. 

C. P Godbolt, Johk. Car. I. 

KB GoDBREDB, William. Hen. VI. 

P L. Chanc. . . . Godfrey, Bishop of Bath. Hen. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Goldington, William de. Edw. H. 

B. E. .... GoLDSBOROuoH, Ebward. Ric. nL Hen. VH. 

L. K., L. Chanc Goodrich, Thomas, Bishop of Ely. Edw. VI. 

K. B Gould, Henry. Will. HI. Anne. 

B. E., C. P. . . Gould, Henry. Geo. HI. 

B. K .... Graham, Robert. Geo. in. IV. 

B. E Grancurt, William de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Granden, Warin de. Hen. UI. 

M. R Graih:, William. Geo. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Gras, Nicholas de. Edw. I. 

B. E Greek, Thomas. Eliz. 

C. P., Ch. K. B. . Green, Henry. Edw. IH. 

L, Chanc. . . . Greenfield, William, Archbishop of York. 

Edw. I. 

B. E., K. B. . . Gregory, William. Car. H. Jac. H. Will. HI. 
Just. Itin., Just. . Greinvill, Adam de. Hen. HI. 

C. P Grevill, Wiluam. Hen. VIH. 

Com. G. S. . . Grey, Henry, Earl of Kent Car. I. Inter 



OF THE JUDGES. XXI 

P L. K., Just. . . Gbet, John de, Bishop of Norwich. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Grey, John de. Hen. m. 

L. Chanc. . . . Grey, Waltee de, Archbishop of York. John. 

Com. G. S. . . Grey, William, Lord Grey de Werke. Car. L 

Inter. 

B. E. .... Gbeystoxe, Henby de. Edw. IIL 

B. E Grimbald, Peter. Hen. m. 

P Just Grimbald, Eobert. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. • . • Grimbald, Eobert. Hen. HI. 

M. E Gbucston, Habbottle. Car. H. 

E. B Gbose, Nash. Qeo, HI. 

P L. K ... Grymesby, Edmund de. Edw. HI. 

Guilford, Lord. See F. North. 
Just. Itin., C. P., Gitldeeobd, Henby de. Edw. I. II. 

Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. . . . Gundeville, Hugh de. Hen. U, 

C. P GxTNDBY, Nathaniel. Geo. II. 

B. E. .... GuNTB^oBP, William. Edw. in. Eic. IL 

Just. Itin. . . . Gurdon, Adam. Edw. I. 

B. E GuBNEY,JoHN. Will IV. Vict. 

H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Hadfield, Walter de. Hen. H. 

Just Hadlow, Nicholas de. Hen. HI. 

Just. .... Haget, Geofi&ey. Eic. I. 

B. E Haghman, Nicholas. Edw. HL 

B. E Hale, Bebnabd. Geo. I. II. 

C. P., Ch. B. E., Hale, Matthew. Inter. Car. EL 
Ch. K. B. 

Just. Itin. . . . Hale, Simon de. Hen. HI. 

M. E Hales, Chbistopheb. Hen. VIH. 

C. P. .... Hales, James. Edw. VI. Mary. 

B. E. . . . . • Hales, John. Hen. VIH. 

C. P., KB. . . IIals, John. Hen. VI. 

B. E Haltopt, Gilbebt. Hen. VI. 

K. B Hambuby, Henby de. Edw. HI. 

P Just. Itin., PL.EL, Hamilton, William de. Edw. L 
L. Chanc. 

C. P., Ch. K B. . Hankpobd, William. Eic. H. Hen. IV. V. VL 
KB Hannemebe, Dayid. Eic. H. 

M. E. .... Hannibal, Thomas. Hen. VIH. 

L. K., L. Chanc. . Habcoubt, Simon, Lord. Anne. Geo. L 

Just. Itin. . . . Hardres, Eobert de. Eic I. 

Hardwicke, Earl of. See P. Yorke. 



XXU ALrHABETICAL LIST 

M. R IIare, Nicholas. Mary. 

Just Harengy Ralph. John. Hen. HE. 

C. P IIakpub, Kicuard. Eliz. 

V. C Hart, Anthony. Geo. IV. 

C. P Harvey Francis. Jac. I. Car. I. 

Just T Harweden, Robert de. Edw. I. . 

B. E Hatbsl, Henry. WilL IH. Anne, 

L. Chanc . . . Hatton, Christopher. Eliz. 

C. P Haitgh, John. Hen. VH. 

Just Itin. . . . Haunsud, William de. Hen. HL 

Just. Itin. . . . Hauteyn, Hamon. Edw. L 

Just Itin. . . . Haya, Robert de. Hen. IH. 

C. P Heath, John. Geo. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Heath, Nicholas, Archbishop of York. Mary. 

B. E Heath, Richard. Jac. H. 

Cb. C. P., K B.^ Heath, Robert. Car. I. 

Ch. KB. 

B. E. .... Hegham, Roger de. Edw. I. II. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Heigham, Clement. Mary. Eliz. 

Just, K. B., C. P. Helytjn, Walter de. Hen. HI. Edw.. I. 

Just. Itin., Just . Hemington, Richard de. Hen. IH. 

B. E Hbnden, Edward. Car. I. 

C. P., Ch. K. B., Hengham, Ralph de. Hen. IH. Edw. I. H. 
Ch. C. P. 

Just Itin. . . . Henp^ham, William de. Hen. HI. 

L, K., L. Chanc. Henley, Robert. Earl of Northington. Geo. II. 

m. 

Just. Angl. . . Henry, Duke of Normandy (afterwards king 

Henry H.) Stephen. 

C. P Heppescotes, Thomas de. Edw. HI. 

Herbert. See Herbert Losinga. 

L. K Herbert, Edward. Car. H. 

Ch. K. B,, Ch. C. P. Herbert, Edward (the son). Jac. H. 

Hereford, Earl of. See W. Fitz-Osbeme; M. de 
Gloucester; H. de Bohun. 

Just Heriet, Richard de. Ric. I. John. 

L. K, Just. Itin. . Herlaston William de. Edw. H. IH. 

C. P., Ch. C. P., Herle, William de. Edw. H. HI. 

C. P., Ch. C. P. 

P L. Chanc. . . Herman, Bishop of Sherborne. Will. I. 

B. E Heron, Edward. Jac. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Hertelpole, Geofirey de. Edw. I. H. 

C. P Hertford, Robert de. Edw. I. 

B. E Hbsill, William. Hcd. V. VI. 

K. B Hewitt, James, Lord Lifford. Geo. III. 



OF THE JUDGES. XXIU 

Just Heydon, Thomas de. Hen. in. 

Just. Itin. . . . Heym, Peter. Edw. I. 

C.P Hetm, Stephen. Hen. HE. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin. . , . Heyrun, Jordan. Hen. IH. 

B. E HiLDERSLET, JOHN DB. Edw. HI. 

KB Hill, Hugh. Vict. 

K. B Hill, or Hull, John. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 

0. P. . . . . . Hill, or Hull, Robert. Hen. IV. V. VI. 

B. E., U. B. . . Hill, Roqeb. Inter. 

C. P., Ch. C. P., Hillary, Roger. Edw. HI. 
C. P., Ch. C. P. 

Just. Itin. . . . Hilton, Adam de. Hen. IH. 

Ch. C. P. ... HoBART, Henry. Jac. I. Car. I. 

Ch. K. B. . . . HoDY, John. Hen. VI. 

Ch. B. E. . . . HoDY, William. Hen. VII. VHI. 

Just. Itin. . . , Holdemess, Alexander de. Abbot of Peterborough. 

Hen. HI. 
Holes, Hugh. See H. Huls. 

B. E HoLGBAVE, John. Ric. HI. Hen. VH. 

KB HoLLOWAY, Richard. Car. H. Jac. II. 

B. E Holme, John. Hen. VI. 

K. B HoLROYD, George Sowley. Geo. IH. IV. 

C. P Holt, John. Ric. IL 

Ch. K. B. . . Holt, John. Will. HI. Anne. 

Just. Itin., B. E., Hopton, Walter de. Hen. HI. Edw. I. 
KB. 

K. B HoRTON, Roger. Hen. V. VI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Hose, Geoflfrey. Hen. H. 

? Just. Itin. . . Hospital!, Ralph de. Hen. H. 

B. E., Com. G. S. Hotham, Beaumont. Geo. IH. 

L. Chanc. . . . Hotham, John de. Bishop of Ely. Edw. H. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Houbrug, William de. Hen. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Houghton, Adam de, Bishop of St. David's. Edw. 

m. Ric. n. 

B. E. .... Houghton, John de. Edw. IH. 

K. B Houghton, Robert. Jac. I. 

Just. Itin, . . . Houton, John de. Hen. IIL 

Just. Itin., C. P. . Howard, William. Edw. I. IL 

Hull, See J. and R. Hill. 

B. E HuLLOCK, John. Geo. TV. 

K. B Huls, or Holes, Hugh. Ric. H.. Hen. IV. V. 

B. E Hunt, Roger. Hen. VI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Huntingfield, Roger de. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Huntingfield, William de. John. 

Just. .... Huscarl, Roger. John. Hen. IH.. 



Xziv ALPHABETICAL LIST 

B. £. IIusB, James. Edw. III. 

Ch. IC B. . . . IIusE, William. Edw. TV. V. Ric m. Hen. 

vn. 

Just Itin., JuBt. . Hussebum, Thomas de. Hen. H. Kic. L John, 
Com. G. 8. . . HuTCHiHS, Geob6B. WilL HI. 

C. P HuTTOir, RiCHABD. Jac. L Car. L 

L. Chanc. . . . Htde, Edwabd^ Earl of Clarendon. Car. II. 

Ch. K. B. . . . Htde, Nicholas. Car. I. 

C. P., Ch. K B. . Hydb, Robert. Car. H. 

Just T. ... Hyde, Thomaa de la. Edw. I. 

C. P HTin)B,JoHH. Hen.Vra. Edw. VI. 

I. 

Just Itin. . . . Ifeldy John de. Edw. IIL 

Ch. B. "E. . . • Illingwobth, Richabd. Hen. VI. Edw. TV. 

C. P. .... Inge, Johk. Edw. IIL 

Just Itin., C. P., Inge, William. Edw. I. II. 

Ch. K. B. 

K. B.y P K. B. • Ingelbt, Thomas de. Edw. HI. Ric. II. 

B. E IiTOLEBT, Chables. Jac. IL 

JuAt, Just Itin. Inglesham, Robert de. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

B. E Ikgoldesby, John. Edw. IV. 

Just Itin« • . • Insula, Brian de. Hen. III. 

Just .... Insula, Godfrey de. Ric. I. John. 

Just Itin., B. E. Insula, John de. Edw. I. II. 

Just .... Insula, Simon de. Hen. IH. 

Just Itin., Just. . Insula, William de. Hen. HI. 

J. 

K. B., Ch. B. E. Jeftbbt, John. EUz. 

Ch. KB., L. Chanc Jeffbeys, Geoboe, Lord. Car. H. Jac. U. 

M. R. . • • • Jektll, Joseph. Geo. I. II. 

B. E., C. P. • • Jenneb, Thomas. Jac. II. 

C. P. .... Jennet, Chbistopheb, Hen. VIII. 

K. B Jennet, William. Edw. IV. V. Ric. IIL 

K B., U. B. . . Jebmyn Phujp. Car. L Inter. 

Ch. C. P. . . . Jebyis, John. Vict 

P L. Chanc . . John. Hen. II. 

K. B., Ch. C. P. Jones, Thomas. Car. II. Jac. II. 

C. P., K. B. . . Jones, William. Jac. I. Car. I. 

Just Josceline. Hen. II. Ric. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Jukel, John. Hen. IL 

Ch.B.E., C.P.,Ch. JiTYN, John. Hen. VL 
C.P., Ch. K. B. 



OF THE JUDGES. XXV 



K. 



? Ch. B. E. . . Karlbol, William db. Ric. 11. ? 

Just. Itin. . . Kaune, Keginald de. Hen. III. 

C. P Keating, Henet Singer. Vict. 

Com. G. S. . . Keck, Anthony. Will. III. 

Com. G. S. . . Keeble, Eichard. Inter. 

Just. Itin. . . . Kellasay, Richard de. Hen. III. 

C. P KJELLESHULL, RiCHARD DE. Edw. III. 

K. B., Ch. K. B. . Kelyng, John. Cai*. II. 

L. Chanc. . . . Kempe, John, Archbishop of York and Canterbury. 

Hen. VI. 

P L. K Kendal, Hugh de. Edw. I. 

Kent, Earl of. See Odo ; H. de Burgh 5 H. Grey. 
M. R., Ch. K. B. Kenton, Lloyd, Lord. Geo. IIL 
Just. T. ... Kerdeston, William de. Edw. I. 
L. K Kilkenny, William de, Bishop of Ely. Hen. IH. 

V. C KiNDBRSLBY, RiCHARD TORIN. Vict. 

Ch. C. p., L. Chanc. King, Peter, Lord. Geo. I. H. 
Just. Itin. . . Kingeston, Henry de. Ric. I. 

C. P KiNGSMTLL, George. Eliz. Jac. I. 

C. P KiNGSMiLL, John. Hen. VH. 

Kinloss, Lord. See E. Bruce. 
Just. Itin. . . . Kirkeby, Gilbert de. Edw. I. 
Just. Itin., Just. . Kirkeby, John de. Hen. HI. 
L. K., P L. K. . Kirkeby, John db. Bishop of Ely. Hen. IH. 

Edw. I. 

M. R Kirkeby, Thomas. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

C. P KiRKETON, Roger de. Edw. HI. Ric. H. 

M. R., P L.K. . . Kirkham, Robert. Hen. VL Edw. IV. 
Just. T. ... Knovill, Gilbert de. Edw. I. 
C. P., Ch. K. B., Knyvet, John. Edw. HI. 
L. Chanc. 

Just Kunill, William de. Ric. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Kyme, Simon de. Ric. I. John. 
P Curs. B. E. . . Kynaston, William. Geo. II. 



Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 
K.B. . 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 



L. 

Lacy, John de. Earl of Lincoln. Hen. III. 
Lacy, Roger de. John. 
Laken, William. Hen. VT. Edw. IV. 
Lamvallei, William de. Hen. H. 
. Lancaster, William de. Hen. IH. 



Ch. B. E., L. K. . Lane, Richard. Car. I. 



XXVI ALPHABETICAL LIST 

JuBt. Angl. . . LAKFRAifc, Aichbisliop of Canterbury. Will. L 

Langdale, Lord. See H. Bickersteth. 
L. Chanc. . . . LAirenAM, Simon ds, Archbishop of Canterbuiy. 

Edw. III. 
L. Chanc. . . . Lanolet, Thouas^ Bishop of Durham. Hen. IV. 

V. VI. 
M. R., L. Chanc. . Langton^ Johk de, Bishop of Chichester. Edw. 

I. n. 

P L. K LangtoU; Walter de^ Bishop of Lichfield and Co- 
ventry. Edw. I. 
Ch. B. E. ... Lasin QBY, William. Hen. V. 
B. E Latttbll, Nicholas. Hen. VH. 

B. E Launfare, John de. Hen. HI. 

Ch. K. B. . . . Law, Eowasd, Lord EUenborough. Geo. III. 

C. P., K. B., C. P. Lawkencb, Souldek. Geo. HI. 

V. C, M. R. . . Leach, John. Geo. IIL IV. Will. IV. 

E. B Le Blano, Simon. Geo. IIL 

B. E Lechmebe, Nicholas. Will. UI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Ledenham, Eustace de. Ric. I. 

K. B., Ch.K. B. . Lee, William. Geo. II. 

Curs. B. E. . . . Leeke, Thomas. Car. 1. 11. 

B. E Leeke, William. Car. II. 

B. E Leoge, Heneage. Geo. II. 

Leicester, Earl of. See R. de Beaumont. 

B. E Leicester, Peteb de. Edw. I. 

C. P., P B. E. . . Leicester, Rooeb de. Edw. I. 

M. R., Com. G. S. Lenthall, William. Car I. Inter. 

Just. Itin. . . . Leonard. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin., P Just., Leuknore, Geoffrey de. Hen, HI. Edw. I. 
Just. Itin. 

B. E Leyesham, Thomas. Hen. VI. 

Just. Itin. • . . Levington, Richard de. Hen. IH. 

C. P Levinz, Creswell. Car. IE. Jac. II. 

? L. K., Just. . Lexington, John de. Hen. IH. 

Just., P Ch. Just. Lexington, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

Ch. K. B. . . . Ley, James, Lord, Earl of Marlborough. Jac. I. 
B. E Lete, Roger de la. Hen. III. Edw. I. 

Lifford, Lord. See J. Hewitt. 
Just. Itin. . . . Lincoln, Alured de. Hen. H. 
Just. Itin. . . . Lincoln, Alured de. Hen. HI. 

Lincoln, Earl of. See J. de Lacy. 
Com. G. S. . . L'Isle, John. Inter. 

Just., K. B. . . Littlebere, Martin de. Hen. HI. Edw. I. 
K. B. . . '. . Littledale, Joseph. Geo. IV. Will. IV. Vict. 
B. E Lloyd, Richard. Geo. II. III. 



OF THE JUDGES. 



XXVll 



Ch. B. E, 
C.P. . 



K.B. 



Just 

Just. Itin., Just. . 
L. ChanC; Just. 
Angl. 

B.E 

PL. Chanc. . . . 
Just. Itin. . . . 

Just. T., Just. Itin. 
K.B. . 



Just. Itin. 

Just. Itin., K. B. . 

B.E. 

C.P. . 

Just. 

Just. Itin. 
Just. Angl. 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 
B.E. . 



K.B. . 
C.P. . 
Just. Itin. 
B.E. . 

Just. 



Ch. B. E., Oh. K B. 
Just. Itin. . . . 
Ch. O.P., L. K. 

C.P 

B. E 



LODELOWB, Thomas de. Edw. III. 

LoDiNGTON, William. Hen. V. 

LozTON, John de. Ric. II. 

London, Henry de, Archbishop of Dublin. John. 

London, William de. Hen. UI. 

LoNGOHAMP, William de. Bishop of Ely. Bic. I. 

LoKD, James. Eliz. 

Losinga, Herbert, Bishop of Norwich. Hen. I. 

Loudham, William de. Hen. IH. 

Loughborough, Lord. See A. Wedderbum. 

Louther, Hugh de. Edw. I. 11. 

LouTHEB, Thomas de. Edw. III. 

Loveday, Roger. Edw. I. 

LovEL, John. Edw. I. 

LovEL, Salathiel. Anne. 

LovBTOT, John de. Edw. I. 

Luci, Godfrey de, Bishop of Winchester. Hen. II. 

Ric. I. 
Luci, Reginald de. Hen. 11. 
Luci, Richard de. Steph. Hen. 1\, 
Luci, Robert de. Hen. II. 
Luci, Stephen de. Hen. IH. 
LiTKE, Nicholas. Hen. VHI. Edw. VI. Mary. 

EUz. 
Lttke, Walteb. Hen. VIII. 
Ltjtwyche, Edwabd. Jac. II. 
Lydiard, Ralph de. Hen. HI. 
Lymbebg, Adam de. Edw. III. 
Lynde, John de la. Hen. III. 
Lyndhurst, Lord. See J. S. Copley. 
Lyster, Richard. Hen. VHI. Edw. VI. 
Lythegrenes, John de. Edw. I. 
Lyttelton, Edward, Lord. Car. I. 
Lyttelton, Thomas. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 
Ltttblton, Timothy. Car. II. 



M. 



Macclesfield, Earl of. See T. Parker. 
Ch. B. E. . . . Macdonald, Archibald. Geo. HI. 
Just. Itin. . . . Maddingley, Robert de. Edw. H. 
K. B., Ch. K. B. . Malbebthoep, Robert de. Edw. II. IH. 

Just Malduit, John. Hen. H. 

Just Malduit, Robert. John. 



• • • 



XXVm ALPHABETICAL LIST 

Just Malduity William. Hen. 11. 

Just. Itin. . . . Malebisse^ Eichard. John. 

K. B Malet, Robebt. Edw. I. 

KB Malst, TnoHAS. Car. L n. 

C. P. .... MallobB; Pbteb. Edw. I. n. 

Just. T Malo Lacu, or Mauley^ Peter de. Edw. I. 

B. E Maltoit, Eobsbt. Hen. V. VI. 

V. C Malus Catulits, Eogeb. Ric. I. 

Manchester, Earls of. 8ee E. Montagu ; H. Mon- 
tagu. 
Just Itin. . . . Mandeville^ Geoffirey de, Earl of Essex. Hen. 11. 
Just. Angl. . . . Mandeville, William de, Earl of Albemarle and 

Essex. Ric. I. 

Manners, Lord. See T. M. Sutton. 
P L. E Mavsel, John. Hen. III. 

Mansfield, Earl of. See W. Murray. 
Ch. C. P. . • , Maitsfield, James. Geo. HI. 
Just. Itin., Just. . Mantel, Robert. Hen. 11. 

C. P., Ch. B. E. . MorwooD, Rogeb. Eliz. 
Just. Itin. . . . Map, Walter. Hen. U. 

Just Mara, Henry de. Hen. IH. 

PL.K Marchia, William de. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . MareschaU, John. Hen. IH. 

Just MareschaU, William, Earl of Pembroke. Ric. I. 

B. E MareschaU, William le. Hen. HI. 

Just., P L. K or Mabisco, Richabd de. Bishop of Durham. John. 
V. C, L.Ohanc Hen. HI. 

G. P Mabkham, John. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 

K. B., Oh. K. B. . Mabkham, John (the son). Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

Marlborough, Earl of. See J. Ley. 

Just., Just. Itin. . Marmion, Robert. Hen. H. Ric. I. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Marsh, Ralph de. Abbot of Croyland. Hen. IH. 

B. E Maetin, Samuel. Vict. 

Just. T Martin, William. Edw. L 

C. P Mabttn, John. Hen. V. VI. 

Curs. B, E. . . Maseees, Fbancis. Geo. HI. IV. 

Just. Itin. . . . Mauderc, Walter. Hen. HI. 

B. E., C. P. . . Mattle, WiLLLiM Henby. Vict. 

Mauley. See P. de Malo Lacu. 
L. Chanc. . . . Maubice, Bishop of London. WiU. I. 
Curs. B. E. . . Mat, Richabd. Car. H. Jac. II. 
Com. G. S. . . Matnaed, John. WiU. HI. 

C. P Meade, Thomas. Eliz. 

K. B Mellob, John. Vict. 



OF THE JUDGES. XXIX 

L. K Melton, William de, Archbishop of York., Edw. 

n. m. 

C. P Mebes, Kogeb be. Edw. UI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Merlay, Boger de. Hen. III. 

B. E Meeston, Henry. Hen. IV. V. 

L. E., L. Chanc, Merton, Walter de, Bishop of Rochester. Hen. 
? Just. HI. Edw. I. 

K. B Mervin, Edward. Hen.VHI. Edw. VI. Mary. 

Just Messenden, Roger de. Hen. III. 

K. B., Ch. C. P. . Metingham, John de. Edw. I. 

Just. T., Just. Itin. Middleton, Adam de. Edw. I. II, 

Just. Itin. . . . Middleton, Peter de. Edw. IH. 

Just., L. Chanc. . Middleton, Richard de. Hen. HI. 

B. E Middleton, William de. Edw. I. 

B. E., C. P. . . Milton, Christopher. Jac. H. 

PL. K MiRFiBLD, William DE. Edw. IH. 

Just Mohun, Reginald de. Hen. HI. 

C. P MoLYNEirx, Edmtind. Edw. VI. 

Just Monachus, Geofirey. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Monmouth, John de. Hen. HI. 

C. P MoNsoN, Robert. Eliz. 

Ch.K.B., Ch.C.P. Montagu, Edward. Hen.Vm. Edw. VI. 
Com. G. S. . . MoNTAGir, Edward, Earl of Manchester. Car. I. 

Inter. 
Ch. K. B. . . . MoNTAGir, Henry, Earl of Manchester. Jac. I. 

B. E., Com. G. S., Montagit, James. Geo. I. 
Ch. B. E. 

Ch. B. E. . . . MoNTAGir, William. Car. H. Jac. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Montealto, Roger de. Hen. IH. 

Just., C. P. . . MoNTEFORT, Henry DE. Hen. HI. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin., B. E. Montfichet, Richard de. Hen. HI. 

C. P., KB... More, John. Hen. VIII. 
L. Chanc. . . . More, Thomas. Hen. VHI. 

Moreton, Earl of. See Robert. 

Just. Itin. . . . Moreville, Hugh de. Hen. II. 

Just. Morewic, Hugh de. Hen. II. 

K, B Morgan, Fraj^cis. Mary. 

Just Itin. . . . Morgan, Hamon. Hen. II. 

Ch. C. P. . . . Morgan, Richard. Mary. 

Just. Itin. . . . Morin, Ralph. John. 

M. R MoRLAND, William. Hen. VI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Mortimer, William de. Edw. I. H. 

M. R., I ? L K, L. Morton, John, Archbishop of Canterbury. Edw, 
Chanc. IV. Hen. VII. 



XXX ALPHABETICAL LIST 

M. R MoBTON, RoBEBT, Bishop of Worcester. Edw. IV. V. 

Ric. m. Hen. Vn. 

K. B MoBToiT, William. Car. II. 

C. P MoTELOW, Henby de. Edw. III. 

C. P MouBBAT, John db. Edw. III. 

C. P MoTLE, Walteb. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

P Just Moyne^ John le. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . MucegTos, Milo de. Hen. 11. 

Just Mucegros^ Richard de. John. 

Just. Itin., Just., MvLETON, Thomas de. Hen. HI. 

P Chief Just. 

Just. Itin. . . . Murdae, Hugh. Hen. 11. 

Just. Itin.y Just. . Murdac, Ralph. Hen. II. Ric. I. 

Ch. K. B. . . . MiTBBAY, William, Earl of Mansfield. Geo. II. 

m. 

Just. Itin. . . . Musard, Ralph. Hen. HI. 

B. E MuscHAMPE, Chbistopheb. Eliz. 

Just. T., Just. Itin., MuTFOBD, John db. Edw. I. H. IH. 

C.P. 

N. 

0. P Nabes, Gbob&e. Geo. IH. 

C. P., K. B. . . Nebdham, John. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

K. B., C. P. . . Neele, Richabd. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. V. Ric. 

m. Hen. vn. 

Just. .... Neville, Alan de. Hen. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Neville, Alan de (the son). Hen. II. 

B. E., C. P. . . Nevxlle, Edwabd. Jac. H. Will. III. Anne. 
P Just. Itin. . . Neville, Geoffi-ey de. Hen. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Nevill, Geobgb, Archbishop of York. Hen. VI. 

Edw. IV. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Neville, Jollan de. Hen. IH. 

PL. K.orV.C, Just. Neville, Ralph de. Bishop of Chichester. John. 

Itin., L. Chanc. Hen. IH. 

L. Chanc. . . . Neville, Richabd. Earl of Salisbury. Hen. VI. 

? Just Neville, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

? Just. Itin. . . Neville, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Newbald, Geofirey de. Edw. I. 

U. B., Ch. U.B. . Newdioate, Richabd. Inter. 

? L. K. . . . . Neweitham, Thomas de. Edw. HI. Ric. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Newmarket, Adam de. Hen. III. 

C. P., Ch. C. P. . Newton, Richabd. Hen. VI. 
U. B., B. E., U. B. Nicholas, Robebt. Inter. 

C. P Nichols, Augustine. Jac. I. 

Just., ? L. Chanc. Nigel, Bishop of Ely. Hen. II. 



OF THE JUDGES, XXXI 

0. P. . . ^ . Noel, William. Geo. II. HI. 

Norfolk, Earl of. See R. Bigot. 

Nonnandy, Duke of. See Henry. 

? L. K NoRMAiofus, Simon. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Normanvill, Thomas de. Edw. I. 

Oh. C. P., L. K. . North, Francis, Lord Guilford. Car. H. Jac. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Northampton, Henry de. Ric. I. John. 

P L. K Northburgh, Roger de. Bishop of Lichfield. 

Edw. II. 
Just. Itin. . . . Northburgh, William de. Edw. I. 

Northington, Earl of See R. Henley. 

B. E NORTHWELL, WlLUAM DE. Edw. HI. 

? Just Northwold, Hugh de. Bishop of Ely. Hen. III. 

B. E NoRTHwooD, Roger de. Edw. I. 

Oh. 0. P. . . . Norton, Richard. Hen. V. 

Just., B. E., Oh. Norwich, Ralph de. Hen. III. 

B. E. 

0. P., Oh. C. P. . Norwich, Robert. Hen. Vin. 

Oh. B. E. . . . Norwich, Walter de. Edw. II. IH. 

Nottingham, Earl of. See H. Finch. 

Just Nottingham, Robert de. Hen. III. 

B. E Nottingham, Robert de. Edw. IH. 

? Just. Itin. . . Nottingham, William de. Hen. HI. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Nottingham, William. Edw. IV. V. 

K. B NoTTON, William de. Edw. HI. 

O 

Just. Angl. . . Odo, Bishop of Bayeux, and Earl of Kent. Will. I. 

n. 

? L. K Odyham, Walter de. Edw. I. 

?L.K Offord, Andrew de. Edw. IIL 

L. Ohanc. . . . Oeeord, John de, Archbishop of Ciinterbury* 

Edw. IIL 
Just. Itin. . . . Oger, the Dapifer. Hen. H. 
Just. Itin., Just. . Oketon, John de. Hen. HI. 

B. E Okham, John de. Edw. IL 

Just. Itin. . . . Oliver, Jordan. Hen. HI. 
Just. Itin., K. B., Ormesby, William de. Edw. L H. 
P K.B., Just. Itin. 

L. Ohanc. . . , Osbert, Bishop of Exeter. Will. I. 

M.R., PL.K, L.K OsGODBT, Adam de. Edw. I. II. 

L. Ohanc. . . . Osmund, Earl of Dorset, and Bishop of Salisbury. 

Will. I. 
B. E Overton, Thomas. Hen. IV. 



• • 



XXXU ALPHABETICAL LIST 

0. P Owes, Thomas. Eliz. 

Just. Itin. . . . Oxford, Constantias de. Hen. 11. 

Oxford, Earl ot See B. de Vere. 
Just. Angl. . . OxPOBD| Jomr op. Bishop of Norwich. Hen. II. 

P. 

B. E., C. P., K.B. Page, Frakcis. Geo. I. IT. 
Curs. B. E. . . Pagb, John or William. Car. I. 
Curs. B. E. . . Pagitt, John. Car. I. 
Just. Itin. . . . Pantulf, Hugh. Bic. I. 

P L. K Pakdishowe, Thomas de. Edw. HI. 

0. P Park, Jambs Alan. Geo. IH. IV. Will. IV. 

Vict. 
K. B., B. E. . . Pabkb, James, Lord Wensleydale. Geo. IV. 

Will. IV. Vict. 
V. C Pabkeb, James. Vict. 

B. E Pabkeb, John. Inter. 

Ch.E.B., L.Chanc. Pabkeb, Thomas, Earl of Macclesfield. Anne. 

Geo. I. 
B.E., C.P., Ch. B.E. Pabkeb, Thomas. Geo. H. HI. 

C. P., Ch. K. B., Pabning, Robebt. Edw. IH, 
L. Chanc. 

B. E Passele, Edmund. Edw. II. 

B. E Passelewe, Simon. Hen. IH. 

C. P Paston, William. Hen. VI. 

P Just. Angl. . . Pateshiill, Hugh de, Bishop of Lichfield and 

Coventry. Hen. IH. 

Just Pateshitll, Mabtin de. Hen. IH. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Pateshull, Simon de. Bic. L John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Pateshull, Walter de. Hen. III. 

K. B Patteson, John. Will. IV. Vict. 

L. K Paulet, William, Marquis of Winchester. Edw. 

VI. 

Just Paunton, James de. Hen. HI. 

Just Pauper, Herbert, Bishop of Salisbury. Bic. I. 

L. Chanc. . . . Paupeb, Bogeb. Steph. 

Just. Itin. . . . Pec, Bichard de. Hen. H. Bic. I. 

K. B., Ch. K. B., Pembebton, Fbancis. Car. H. 
Ch. C. P. 

Pembroke, Earl of. See W. Mareschall. 

C. P PffiffECESTEB, Stephen de. Edw. L 

Ch. B. E. . . . Penqellt, Thomas. Geo. I. 11. 
? K. B. or C. P. Penbos, John. Bic. II. 

M. B., Com. G. S., Pepts, Chables Chbistopheb, Earl of Cottenham. 
L. Chanc. Will. IV. Vict. 



OF THE JUDGES. XXXUl 

RE. .... Pbpts, KiCHABD. Inter. 

B. E., 0. P. • . Pkbcehat, Henbt db, Edw. III. lUc, II. 

Juflt Itin., Just. . Percy, P^ter de. Hen. m. 

Just. Itin. . . . Per<5y, Robert de. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Percy, William de. John. 

B. E Pbrbot, Gbobob. Geo. HI. 

B. El . . . . . Pkbrtn, Riohabd. Geo* HI. 

C. P., Ch. B. E. . Pebyah, William* Eliz. Jac. I. 
Just. Itin. . . . Peter, Abbot of Tewkesbury. Hen. III. 

B. E Petit, John. Hen. VIH. . 

Just Peverel, Hugh. Ric. I. 

M. R Phelipfs, Edwabb. Jac. I. ; 

C. P Phesant, Peteb. Car. I. Inter. 

L. Chanc, , . . Philip. Steph. 

? Just. Itin. . . . Picheford, Geofirey de. Edw. I. 

B. E Pioott, Gilleby. Vict 

Just. Itin. . . . Pikenot^ Robert Hen. H, 

B. E Pelboboxtgh, John. Hen. VIH. Edw. VI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Pinkeni, Gilbert de. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Pipard, Gilbert Hen. TL, 

L. Chanc. . . . Plaktagenet^ Geoffbey, Archbishop of York. 

Hen. H. 

B. E Platt, Thomas Joshua. Vict 

Just. Itin. . . . Plessetis, John de, Earl of Warwick. Hen. HI. 

B. E PlestE; Robebt de. Edw. HI. 

Ch. B. E. ... Plesyngton, Robebt de. Ric. H. 

V. C, M. R. . . Plumeb, Thomas. Geo. HI. IV. 

Just. Itin. . . . Poer, Walter le. Hen, HI. 

Just Poictiers, Philip de. Bishop of Durham. Ric. I. 

L. Chanc. . . . Pole, Michael de la, Earl of SuiSblk. Ric. H. 

K. B, • 9 « • . Pole, Ralph. Hen. VT. 

B. E. . • « . . Pole, William de la. Edw. IH. 

C. P PoLLABD, Lewis. Hen. VTH. 

Ch. C. P. . . . PoLLEXPEN, Henby. Will. HI. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Pollock, I^eiedebicx. Vict 

Just. Itin. . . . Ponte, Richard de. John. 

Just Ponte Audomare, Henry de. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Poore, Richard, Bishop of Salisbury. Hen. HI. 

Ch. K. B. . . . PoPHAM, John. Eliz. Jac. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Port, Adam de. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Port, Henry de. Hen. I. 

K. B. .... PoBT, John. Hen. Vm. 

Just. Itin. . . . Porteseye, Adam de. Hen. HI. 

C. P PoBTiNGTON, JoHN; Hen. VI. 

K. B., Ch. K. B. . PoBTMAN, William. Hen. VIH. Edw. VI. Mary. 
YOL. IX. B B 



ZXXIY ALPHABETICAL LI8T 

Just Potema, James de. Hie. L John. Hen. Ul. 

C. P., K. B., C. P. Powell, John. Jac. n. WiU, in. 

B. E., C. P., K. B. PowBLL, John. Will. m. Anne. 

B. E., K. B. . . Powell, Thomas. Jac IL 

PL. K Power, Walter. Edw. IH. 

M. R PowLE, Henbt. Will. in. 

B. E., KB. . . PowTS, Littleton. Will. HE. Anne. Geo. I. 
K. R PowTS, Thomas. Anne. Geo. I. 

Just. Itin. . • • Poynton, Alexander de. John. 

Just. Itin., P Just. Poywick, William de. Hen. IH. 

Ch.C.P.,L.Chanc. Pratt, Chakles, Earl Camden. Geo. HI. 

K B., ConL G. S., Pratt, John. Geo. I. 

Ch.KB. 

Just Itin., Just^ Preston, Gilbebt de. Hen. IH. Edw. I. 

Ch. C. P. 

C. P Preston, John. Hen. V. VI. 

P Oh. 0. P. . . • Preston, Robert be. Ric. H. 

B. E,, C. P. . . Price, Robert. Anne. Geo. I. H. 
Com. G. S. . . . Prideatjx, Ebmonb. Car. I. 

Ch. C. P. . . . Prisot, John. Hen. VI. 

K B., Ch. B. R . Probtn, Edmund. Geo. I. H. 

L. K Puckering, John. Eliz. 

C. P. PuLESTON, John. Inter. 

Just. AngL, Just. . PusAR, Hugh, Bishop of Durham. Ric. I. 

B. R Pymme, Thomas. Eliz. 

Ch. B. R . . . Ptnchebek, Thomas. Ric. H. 

Q 

Just Quincy, Saherus de, Earl of Winchester. John. 

R 

Just Itin. . . . Radeclyre, Thomas de. Edw. HI. ' * 

Just Itin. . . . Radenhale, John de. Edw. IH. 

B. E Radeswell, John de. Edw. H. 

B. R, K. B., Ch. Rainsford, Richard. Car. H. 
KB. 

. Raleigh, William de,Bishop of Winchester. Hen. IH. 

. Ralph, Archdeacon of Colchester. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

. Ralph, Archdeacon of Hereford. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

. Ramsey, Abbot of. John. 

. Randolph, Abbot of Evesham. Hen. HI. 

. Randolph, John. Edw. I. H. HI. 

. Ranulph, or Arnulph. Hen. I. 

Ranulph^ Treasurer of Salisbury. Ric. I. 

. Rastall, William. Mary. Eliz. 



Just. . . 
Just . . 
Just . . 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 
Just. Itin. 
L. Chanc. 
Just. Itin. 
KB.. . 



OF THE JUDGES. XXXV 

? L. K Kavensbr, John de. Ric. II. 

? L. K Kavenser, Richard de. Edw. III. Ric. II. 

Com. G. S. . . . Rawiinson, William. Will. III. 

K. B., Com. G. S., Raymond, Robert, Lord. Geo. I. II. 
Ch. K. B. 

B. E., C, P., K. B. Raymond, Thomas. Car. 11. 

K B., Ch. C. P. . Read, Robert. Hen. VII. VIII. 

C. P Reeve, Edmund. Car. I. 

C. P., Ck C. P. . Reeve, Thomas. Geo. 11. 

? L. Chanc. . . . Reginald, Abbot of Walden. Stepb. 

P L. Chanc. . . . Reginald, Prior of Montacute. Hen. I. 

L. Cbanc. . . . Reginald, Walter, Arcbbisbop of Canterbury. 

Edw. H. 

B. E Reinger, John. Hen. HI. 

? Just Reinger, Richard. Hen. III. 

Just. Itin. . . . Reiny, John de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Retford, Robert de. Edw. I. H. 

B. E Retford, William de. Edw. IH. 

P Just., P K. B. . Reygate, John de. Hen. HI. Edw. I. 

K. B., Ch. B. E. . Reynolds, James. Geo. I. H. 

B. E Reynolds, James. Geo. U. 

L. Chanc. . . . Rich, Richard, Lord. Edw. VI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Richard, Archdeacon of Wilts. Hen. U. 

P L. K Richard, Bishop of Hereford. Hen. I. 

B. E., Ch. B. E. . Richards, Richard. Geo. HI. IV. 

C. P Richardson, John. Geo. HI. IV. 

Ch. C. P., Ch. K. B. Richardson, Thomas. Car. I. 

C. P RicKHiLL, William. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 

? Just. Angl. . . Ridel, Geoffrey. Hen. I. 

Just., Just. Angl. . Ridel, Geoffrey, Bishop of Ely. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. . , . Rideware, William de. Ric. I. 

B. E RiGBY, Alexander. Inter. 

Just. Itin. . . . Ripariis, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Ripariis, Walter de. Hen. HI. 

P L. K., B. E. . . Rivallis, Peter de. Hen. IH. 

Just Aiigl. . . . Robert, Earl of Moreton and of Cornwall. Will. I. 

V. C ROCELINE. Ric. I. 

B. E Roche, Thomas. Hen. VH. 

Just. Itin. . . . Rochester, Solomon de. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Rodeborough, Milo de. Edw. II. 

C. P Rodes, Francis. Eliz. 

L. Chanc, Just. Roger, Bishop of Salisbury. Hen. I. Steph. 

Angl. 

C. P., K. B. . . Rokeby, Thomas. Will. IH. 

Just. Rokele, Robert de. Hen. IH. 

B B 2 



XXXTl ALPHABETICAL LIST 

B. R, Com. Q. S., Rolfe^ Robert Monsey, Lord Cranwortb. Vict. 
V.C.,L. JufltA., 

L. Chaac. 

K. B., Ch. K B.^ Rolls, Hekbt. Car. I. Inter. 

Ch. U. B. 

M. R RoMiLLT^ JoHir. Vict. 

Just Itin. . . . Romsey, Nicholas de. Hen. m. 

Just. Itin. . . . Romsejy Walter de. Hen. m. 

C. P. RooKE, Giles. Geo. m. 

Just Itin. . . . Roe, Peter de. Ric. I. 

Just Ros, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

Rosslyn, Earl of. See A. Wedderbum. 

B. R RoTHEBAV, John. Jac. H. 

L. Chanc. . . . Rotherah, Thomas, alias Scott, Archbishop of 

York. Edw.IV.V. 
K. B., C. P. . . RouBrRY, Gilbert db. Edw. I. IL " 
B. R RoucLiPPB, Brian. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. V. Ric. 

m. Hen.Vn. 
L. Chanc. . . . Rufus, Geoffrey, Bishop of Durham. Hen. I. 

Just Rufus^ ^^7) Bishop of Bangor. Hen. H. 

Just Itin. . . . Rufus, Richard. Hen. H. 
Just. Itin., Just. . Rufus, William. Hen. H. 
Just, L. Chanc, Rupibub, Peter de, Bishop of Winchester. John. 

Just. Angl. 
L. Chanc. . . . Russell, John, Bishop of Lincoln. Edw. V. 

Ric. HI. 
Ch. E. R . . . Ryder, Dudley. Geo. H. 

S 
Just Itin. . . . Sackrille, Jordan de. Hen. HI. 
Ch.B.E.,L. Chanc, Sadington, Robert de. Edw. HI. 
Ch. B. R 

Sadington, Thomas de. See Sodington. 

P B. E Sahara, Richard de. Edw. I. 

K. B Saham, William de. Edw. I. 

St. Alban's, Viscount. See F. Bacon. 
Just Itin. ... St. Edmund, Roger de. Ric. I. 

Just St Edmund, William de. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin. ... St. Helena, John de. Hen. HI. 

Just St. Jacobo, Stephen de. Ric. I. 

Just Itin. ... St. John, John de. Hen. IH. 
Com. G. S. . . . St. John, Oliver, Earl of Bolingbroke. Car. L 
Com. G. S., Ch. St. John, Oliver. Car. I. Inter. 
0. P. 

St. Leonard's, Lord. See E. B. Sugden, 



OF THE JUDGES. XXXVU 

Just. St. MariaB Ecclesia^ William de, Bishc^ of London. 

Ric. I. 

Just. Itin. ... St. Martin, Ralph de. Eic. I. 

Just, Just. Itin. . St. Omero, William de. Hen. m. ' 

?L.K,M.R.,L.K St. Paul, John db, Archbishop of Dublin. Edw. 

ni. 

Just. Itin. ... St. Quentin, Walter de. Hen. U. 

B. E St. Valerioo, John de. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin. ... St. Vigore, Thomas de. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin. . • . Salceto, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

Salisbury, Earl of. See R. Nevill, W. Cedl; . 

L. Chanc. . . . Salmon, John, Bishop of Norwich. Edw. II. 

Just. T Salveyn, Gerard. Edw. I. 

Just ..... Samford, Thomas de. John. 

L. Chanc. . . . Sandale, John de. Bishop of Winchester. Edw. II. 

f L. K, P C. P. • Sandwich, Ralph de. Hen. HI. Edw. I. 

F Just .... Sansetun,Benedictde, Bishop of Rochester. Hen. HI. 

Gh. K B. • • . Saunders, Edmund. Gar. H. 

G. P., Ch. K, B., Saundbbs, Edward. Mary, Eliz. 

Gh. B. E. 

P Just Itin. . . Saunford, John de. Archbishop of Dublin. Edw. I. 

Just Sauvage, G^ofirey de. Hen. HI, 

Just. Itin. . . . Sauvage, James de. Hen. IH. 

B. E Sayile, John. Eliz. Jac. I. 

B. E Saxby, or Saxilby, Edward. Edw. IV. Marfb 

Eliz. 

P K B Say, Geoffirey de. Edw. H. 

E. B., G. P., K. B. SCARDEBURGH, ROBERT DE. Edw. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . Scardeburgh, Roger de, Abbot of Whitby. Hen. 

HI. 

M. R., L. Ghanc. . Soarle, John de. Ric. U. Hen. IV. 

Gh. B. Ei . . . Scarlett, James, Lord Abinger. Will. IV. Vict, 

Just. Itin., B. E. . ScoRBURGH, Robert de. Edw. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . Scothou, William de, Edw. HI. 

B. E ScoTRE, Roger de. Edw. H. 

? Ch. B. E., P B. R SooTT,JoHN. Hen. VIH. 

Ch. C. P., L. Chanc. Scott, John, Earl of Eldon. Geo, III. IV. 

Scott, Thomas. See T. Rotheram. 

C.P.,KB.,Ch.K.B. SooTT, William. Edw. HI. 

C. P., Ch. K. B. . ScROGGS, William. Gar. H. 
G.P.,Ch.K.B., C.P. SoROPE, Geoffrey le. Edw. II. HI. 
G.P.,Gh.KJB.,C.P., ScROPE, Henry le. Edw. H. HI. 

Gh.K.B.,ChJB.E. 

Com. G. S. ScROPE, John. Anne. 

L. Chanc. ... Scrope, Richard le. Ric. U. 



XXXViii ALPHABETICAL LIST 

B. E Seculer, Alexander le. Hen. in. 

JuBt. Itin. . . . Sefred, Bishop of Chichester. Hen. H. 

Just Segrave, Gilbert de. Hen. HI. 

Just., L. K. . . . Seorayb, Hugh db. Ric. U, 

Just, Just. Angl. . Sboraye, Stephen db. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . SeingSy Richard de. John. Hen. HI. 

B. £ Selbt, Ralph db. Ric. H. 

KJ8.,CP.,Ch.KJ8. Sbtoke, Thomas DB. Edw.m. 

M. R Sewbll, Thohas. Geo. HE. 

Just.,CP.,Ch.C.P. Sbyton, RoeBR DE. Hen. UI. Edw. I. 

V.0.,Com.G.S.(2) Shadwbll, Lancelot, Geo. IV. Will. IV. Vict. 

Shaftesbury Earl of. See A. A. Cooper. 

C. P., K. B., C. P. Shabdelowe, John db. Edw. in. 

Just Shaidelowe, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

K.B.,CJP.,Ch3Ji. Shabeshull, William db. Edw. IH. 

C. P., Ch. K. B. 

K. B Shee, William. Vict. 

0. P Shelley, William. Hen. VHI. Edw. VI. 

B. E Shibland, Almabic db. Edw. HI. 

B. E Shoedigh, John de. Edw. HI. 

Just Shottindon, Robert de. Hen. HI. 

B. E., E. B. . . Shute, Robebt. Eliz. 

Just. Itin. . . . SigiUo, Nicholas de. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . Simon, Abbot of Reading. Hen. IH. 

Curs. B. £. . . . Simpson, William. Will. HI. Anne. Geo. I. 

C.P.,Ch.BJl,CJ». Skipwith, William de. Edw. HI. Ric. IL 

L. K Skiblawe, Walteb de. Bishop of Durham. Ric. 

n. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Sktnnbb, John. Geo. HL 

B. E Smith, John. Hen. VIH. 

B. E Smith, John. Anne. Geo. I. 

B. E., Com. G. S., Smtthe, Sidney Stappobd. Geo. H. HI. 
Ch. B. E. 

B. E Snigge, Geoboe. Jac. L 

Just. Itin. . , . Snyterton, Thomas de. Edw. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Sodington, or Sadington, Thomas de. Edw. I. 

B. E SoMEB, Henby. Hen. TV. 

L. K., L. Chanc. . Somees, John, Lord. Will. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . Sorewell, William de. Hen. IH. 

B. E SOTHEBTON, JoHN. Eliz. Jac. I. 

Curs. B. E. . . . SoTHEBTON, John. Jac. I. Car. I. 

B, E. [P Curs.] . . SoTHEBTON, NowBLL. Jac. I. 

Southampton, Earl of. See T. Wriothesley. 

K. B SoiTTHOoTB, John. Eliz. 

M. R Southwell, Robbbt. Hen. VHI. Edw. VI. 



OP THE JUDGES. XXXIX 

? L. K. • . . . Spaigne, Nicholas de. Edw. lU. 

Just. Itin. . • . Spaldewick^ WiUiam de. Abbot of Colchester. 

Hen. m. 
Just. Itin. • . . Spalding, John de. Hen. IH. 
Curs. B. E. . . . Speucax, Clement. Car. U. 

K. B Spblman, JohK. Hen. VHI. 

Just. Itin., K. B. . Spigttrnel, Henry. Edw. I. II. 

L. K., L. Chanc. Siafeobd, Edmund de, Bishop of Exeter. Kic. H. 

Hen. IV. 
L. Chanc . . . Siaitfobd, John, Archbishop of Canterbury. Hen. 

VI. 

Just Itin., Just, SiANES, Richard de. Hen. IH. Edw. I. 
K. B., C. P. 

M. R Stanley, Thomas de. Ric. H. Hen. IV. 

Just T Stapleton, Milo de. Edw. I. 

K. B Stapleton, Nicholas de. Edw. I. 

Ch. B. E., C. P. . Starkey, Humphrey. Edw. V. Ric. HI. Hen. 

vn. 

B.E Statham, Nicholas. Edw. IV, 

C. P. Statinpord, William. Mary. 

Just. Itin.,C.P., B.E., Staunton, Hbrvey de. Edw. I. H. 

Ch.K.B.,Ch.C.P. 
Just. Itin. . . . Staunton, William de. Hen. IH. 

B. E Staverton, John. Hen. IV. V. 

Ch. B. E. ... Steele, William. Inter. 

B. E., C. P., K. B. Steyngrave, Adam de. Edw. TH. 

Just. Itin. . . . Stikeswald, Roger de. Ric. I. 

L. Chanc. . . . Sttllington, Robert, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

Edw. IV. 
Just Itin. . . . Stircheleye, Walter de. Edw. L 

Just Stivekel, Josceline de. John. 

Just. ..... Stoke, Ralph de. John. 

Just Itin. . . . Stoke, Richard de. Hen. IH. 

B. E Stokes, John de. Edw. HI. 

B. E Stokes, Richard. Ric. H. 

C. P., ? K.B.,C.P., Stonore, John de. Edw. H. HI. 
Ch.B.E.,Ch.C.P. 

M. R Stopdtdon, John. Hen. VI. 

C. P., Ch. B. E.,. Stouford, John de. Edw. IH. 
C.P. 

B. E Stowe, William de. Edw. IH. 

Just Itin. . . . Strange, Guy le. Hen. II. 

M. R Strange, John. Geo. II. 

? Just. Itin. . . . Strange, Roger le. Edw. I. 

C. P Strangeways, James. Hen. VI. 



ALPHABETICAL LIST 



L. Chanc. • . . 



L. Ks, L. Chanc. . 



?B.K,?Cli.B.R 


jB. £.y C* X • • • 


K. B. . • • , • 


Just Itin. . . . 


V.C 


Just. Itin. . . . 


Just Itin. . . . 


L. Chane. . . . 


Just Itin. . • . 


L. Chano. , • . 


K. B» • • « • . 


Ju(Bt Itin. . • . 


Just. Itin. • • . 


KB. . . . , 


B. £. . • « • • 


B. £ • 


C X • 



Stbatfobb, John ds, Aichbishop of Canterbxuy. 

Edw. m. 
Stratford, Robert de, Bishop of Chichester. 

Edw. in. 

Stratton, Adam de. Edw. I. 

Street, Thomas. Car. 11. Jac. n. 

Strxnoer, Thomas. Jac. n. 

Strode, John de le. Hen. HE. 

Stitart, JoHir. Vict. 

Stuteville, Bobert de. Hen. H. 

Stuteyille, William de. Bic. I. 

Stjdburt, Sdcon de, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Ric. n. 
Sudley, Ralph de. Hen. HI. 
Sufiblk, Earl of. iS;?^ M. de la Pole. 
SiTGDEN, Edward Bttrienshaw, Lord St. Leonard's. 

Vict. 
SuxTARD, JoHBf. Ric. HL Hen. VH. 
Sumeri, Roger de. Hen. IH. 
Surrey, Earl of. See J. and W. de Wairenne. 
Suthill, John. Ric. I. 
Sutton, Eli as de. Edw. L 
Sutton, Thomas Maistners, Lord Manners. Geo. 

m. 

Swereford, Alexander. Hen. HI, 
Sydeitham, Richard, Ric. II. 



Just. Itin. 
L. Chanc. 
Just. Itin. 
C. P. . . 



Just Itin. . 
K.B., Ch.B.E 
Ch. B. E. . 
K.B. . . . 
M. R. . . 



L. Chanc. . 
C.P., Ch. C. P 
Just. Itin. . 
B. E., Ch. B. E 
Curs. B. E., B. E. 
M. R., L. K., L, 
Chanc. 



T. 

Tablir, Ralph. Hen. IH. 

Talbot, Charles, Lord. Geo. H. 

Talebot, Gilbert. Hen. HI. 

Taleoxtrd, Thomas Noon. Vict. 

Tametone, William de. Hen. HI. 

Tanfleld, Laurence. Jac. I. Car. I. 

Tank, Willlim. Edw. III. 

Taunton, Willloe Ellis. Will. IV, 

Taylor, John. Hen. VIH. 

Tenterden, Lord. See C. Abbott. 

Thesiger, Frederick, Lord Chelmsford. Vict. 

Thirning, William. Ric. II. Hen. IV. V. 

Thomas, Abbot of Winchecumb. Hen. III. 

Thomson, Alexander. Geo. IH. 

Thomson, William. Geo. I. H. 

Thoresbt, John de. Archbishop of York. Edw. 

in. 



OF THE JUDGES. xU 

Gh.KB. . . , ThOBKTON, GiLBSBT BE. Edw. I. 

B. E Thobpb^ Fbancis. Jnter. 

Ju8t..Itin. , . . Thorpe^ John de. Edw. L 11. 

C. P Thobpe, Robert db, Edw. I. 

Ch. 0. P.,L. Chanc. Thorpe, Kobebt de, Edw. IIL 

Just, Itin. . . . Thorpe, Robert de. Edw. m. 

Thorpe, Simon de. See S. de Trop. 

B. E Thorpe, Thomas. Hen. VL 

C. P., K. B., Ch. Thorpe, Whliam db. Edw. ni. 
K. B., F B. E. • 

Just. Itin., Just • Thurkilbt, Roger de. Hen. HE. 

B. E Thxtrlaitd, Edward. Car. n. 

L. Chanc. , , , Thtjrlow, Edward, Lord. Geo. in. 

Ch. C. P. ... TusTDAJL, N1COLA8 CoNT^aHAM. Geo. IV, ^^^11, 

rV. Vict. 

K. B TntwHiT, Robert. Hen. IV. V. VI. 

Just., Just. Angl. . TocLiFFE, Richard, Bishop of Winchester. Hen. H. 

Curs. B. E. . • • ToMLiKs, Richard. Car. I. Inter. 

Just Torell, William. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. • . • Tomoura, Adam de. Ric. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Totington, Samson de. Hen. H. 

Just. Itin. . . . TouTHEBT, Gilbert de. Edw. H. UL 

C. P TowNSHEND, Roger. Ric. IIL Hen, VH. 

Just Itin., B. E. « Tracy, Henry de. Hen. HI. 

B. R, C. P., Com. Tract, Robert. Will. HI. Anne. Geo. I. 
G. S. (2.) 

C. P Tratebs, JoHir, Edw. HI. 

Ch. C. P., Com. Treby, George. Will. HI. 

G.S. 

K. B Trehatle, Thomas. Hen. VEI. 

K. B., Ch. K, B. . TREsnjAyr, Robert. Ric. H. 

C.P Tkevaignoit, John DE. Edw. HI. 

Just. Itin., P Just. Trevet, Thomas. Hen. IH. 

M. R., Com. G. S. Trevor, John. Jac. H. Will. IH. Anne. Geo. L 

B. E Trevor, Thomas. Car. L , 

Ch.C.P.,Com.G.S. Trevor, Thomas, Lord. Will. IH. Anne. Geo. I. 

Just. Itin., C. P., Trikingham, Lambert db. Edw. I. H. HI. 

K. B., B. E. 

Just. Itin. • • . Trop, or Thorpe, Simon de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . • . Trumpington, William de. Hen. m. 

Truro, LortI . See T. Wilde. 

Just Trussel, WiUiam. Hen. HI. 

P Just Trussel, William. Edw. H. 

M. R« .... TiJKSTALL,CinHBERT,Bishop of London. Hen. Vin. 

V. C, L. Just. A. Turner, George James. Vict 

Just Tumham, Stephen de. Ric. I. John. 



zlii ALPHABETICAL LIST 

B. E TuBNpR, Chbistophsr. Car. U. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Ttjrnotjr, Edward. Car. 11. 

Just Turn, Jordan de. John. 

Ch. Just. . . . TiTBBi, Nicholas de. Hen. in. 

B. E.,^. B. . . TuBToir, John. Will. in. Anne. 

Just. Itin. . . . Turvill, Maurice de. Hen. IH. 

B. E TuTTBBUBY, Thomas. Hen. IV. 

K. B TwiSDmy, Thokas. Car. H. 

Com. G. S., C. P. . Tybrell^ Thomas. Inter. Car. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Ulecot, John de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Uleoot, Philip de. Hen. HI. 

P Just. Itin. . . Upsale, Geoffirey de. Hen. IH. 

Ch. B. E. . . . Ubswyxb, Thomas. Edw. IV. 

V. 

Just Itin. . . . ValoinSy Theobald de. Hen. IH. 

Ch. C. P. . . . VAuaHAir, John. Car. H. 

B.E., C. P. . . Vattghan, John. Geo. IV. Will. IV. Vict. 

Just. Itin. . . . Vaux^ John de. Edw. I. 

Just Itin. . . . Vaux, Oliver de. Hen. HI. 

Just. Itin. . . . Vaux, Eobert de. Hen. H. 

C. P. Vavasour, John. Hen. VET. 

Just. Itin. . . . Vavasour, William le. Hen. H. Ric. I. 

Just. T Vavasour, William le. Edw. I. 

C. P Vbntris, Peyton, Will. HI. 

Just Verdun, Bertram de. Hen. H. 

Just Itin. . . . Verdun, John de. Hen. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . Verdun, Walter de. Hen. HI. 

P Just. Angl. . . Vere, Alberig de. Hen. I. 

Just Itin. . . . Vere, Robert de. Earl of Oxford. Hen. III. 

Just Itin., Just . Vere, WiUiam de, Bishop of Hereford. Hie. I. 

M. R Verney, John. Geo. II. 

B. E., C. P. . . Vernon, George. Car. I. 
Just. Itin. . . . Vernon, William de. Hen. HI. 

Verulam, Lord. See F. Bacon. 
? Just. Itin. . . . Vescy, William de. Edw. I. 
Just. Itin. . . . Veteri Ponte, Robert de. John. Hen. III. 
Just. Itin. . . . Veym, Richard de. Hen. IH. 

W. 

C. P Wadham, John. Ric. II. 

M. R., L. K., M. R. Wakbring, John, Bishop of Norwich. Hen. 1\, 

V. 



OF THE JUDGES. xUii 

,K. B Walcot, Thomas. Car. n. Jac. EC. 

B. E Walbdbne, Htjmphbbt db. Edw. I. II. 

Just. Itin. . . . Waldliull, Simon de. Jolm. 

L. Chanc. . . . Waldbio. Hen. I. 

Just. Itin. . . . Waleis^ William de. Hen. HI. 

Just Walerand^ Bobert. Hen. HE. 

Just. Itin. . . . WaUdngham^ Alan de. Edw. I. 

Curs. B. E. . . . Wallop, Biohabd. Will. IH. 

C. P Walmssley, Thomas. Eliz. Jac. I. 

C. P Walsh, John. Eliz. 

B. E Walshb, Thomas. Hen. VHI. 

Walfflngham, Lord. See W. De Grey. 

Just. T., Just. Itin. Walsingham, Bichard de. Edw. I. H. 

Just., Just. Angl., Waltbb, HxjBEBT, Archbishop of Canterbury. Hen. 

L. Chanc. IL Bic. I. John. 

Ch. B. !fi. . . . Walter, John. Car. L 

Just. Itin. • . . Walter, Theobald. Bic. I. 

M. B., L. K. • . Waltham, John db, Bishop of Salisbury. Bic. n. 

B. E Waltham, BoGKR. Hen. V. . 

P L. K. . . . . Waltham, William db. Bic. H. 

C. P. Wabbubton, Pbteb. EUz. Jac. L 

C. P., U. B. . . Wabbubton, Pbteb. Inter. 

Ch:B.E., Com.G.S. Wabd,Edwabd. WilL HI. Anne. 

B. E Wabd, William. Hen. VL 

Just* Itin. . . . Ware, Bichard de, Abbot of Westminster. Edw. L 

Just. Itin. . . . Warenne, John, Earl Warren, and Earl of Surrey. 

Hen. m. 

Just. Itin. . . . Warenne, Beginald de. Hen. II. 

Just. Angl. . . . Wabbnnb, William db, Earl Warren, and Earl of 

Surrey. WiU.I. 

Just. Itin., Just. . Warenne, William de. Bic. I. John. 

M. R, L. K., L. Wabham, William, Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Chanc. Hen. VH. Vm. 

V. C Wabinb, Prior of Loches. Bic. I. 

P L. K., B. E. . . Wableb, Ingblabde db. Edw. TL 

L. Chanc. . . . Wabneyille, Balph de. Hen. H. 

Warwick, Earl o£ 8ee J. de Plessetis. 

M. B., P L. K. . . Wath, Michael de. Edw. IH. 

Just Watsand, Alan de. Hen. HL 

B. E Watson, William Henbt. Vict, 

Just. Itin. . . . Wanton, John de. Hen. IH. 

Just. Itin., Jiist., Wanton, Simon de. Bishop of Norwich. Hen. HI. 

P Ch. Just 

L. Chanc. Watnfletb, William, Bishop of Winchester, 

Hen. VL 



Xlly ALPHABETICAL LIST 

Ch. 0. P., Com. G. Wbdderbubit, Ajjolajstdso, Lord Loughboroughi 

S,, L. Ghanc. Earl of Bosslyn. Geo. in. 

P L. K . . . . Welleford, Geoflfrey de. Edw. U, 

Just, Just Itin. . Welleford. Balpb de. Kic. I. John. 

Just. Itin. . . . Welles, William de. Hen. in. 

P L. K or V. C., Wells, Kvqu db, Bishop of Lincoln. John. Hen. 

Just; Just Itin. IIL 

Just,L.KorV.O. Wells, Josceldtb de, Bishop of Bath and Wells. 

John. Hen. HI. 

Wells, Simon de. iSS^ S. Fitz-Kobert. 

L. Chanc . . . Wblson, William, Bishop of Thetford. Will. L 

Wensleydale, Lord. See J. Parke. 

Westbuiy, Lord. See R. BetheU. 

KB Westburt, William. Hen. VI. 

B. E. Westbt, Bartholomew. Hen. VH. VHI. 

Just Itin* . . • Westcote, John de. Edw. H. 

B. E. Westminster, Edward de. Hen. HI. 

B. E. Westoit, Jambs. Car. I. 

C. P. Weston, Biohabd. Eliz. 

B. £. Weston, Bichabd. Car. I. 

B, E Weston, Bichabi). Car. H. 

B. E. Westwodb, Rogeb. Hen. IV. V. VI. 

Just Itin., C. P., WeylanD; Thomas de. Hen. m. Edw. I. 

Ch. C. P. 

Just, C. P. • . Wetland, William de. Hen. HI. Edw. L 

K. B Whiddon, John. Mary. Eliz. 

Just. Whitchester, Roger de. Hen. HI. 

Com. G. S.,' L. K. Whitelocke, Btjlsxbode. Car. I. Inter. 

£. B Whitelocke, James. Jac. I. Car. L 

B. E. Whitington, Thomas. Edw. IV. V. 

C. P WiCHiNGHAM, William de. Edw. HI. 

Just Wichinton, Henry de. Ric. I. John. 

Just Itin. . . . Wichinton, William de. Hen. HI. 

Com. G. S., Ch. Widdbtngton, Thomas. Car. 1. Inter. 

B.E 

Just Itin. . . . Wighenholt, John de. Hen. HL 

K.B Wightman, William. Vict 

V. C WiGBAM, James. Vict. 

B. E Wilde, James Plaisted. Vict. 

Com. G. S., Ch. Wilde, John. Car. I. Inter, 

B.K 
Ch. C. P., L. Chanc. Wilde, Thomas, Lord Truro. Vict. 

C. P., K. B. . . Wilde, William. Car. H. 

B. E., Ch. B. E. . WiLFOBD, Gebvase de. Edw. III. 

K. B i WiLLES, Edwabd. Geo. HI. 



OF THE JT7DGE8. xlv 

C. P. WiLLRS, Jambs Shaw. Vict. 

Ch. C. P., Com. G. S. Willes, Johk. Geo. n. m. 

Juflt Williiuii, Aichdeacon of Totneas. H«i. 11. 

Just Itin. . . . William, AichdeaooD of Hereford. John. 
M. R. .... WiLLiAif, Dated. Hen. Vil. 
K. B. . • . , . WTT.T.TAifs, Dated. Jac. L 

0. P. WHUAMB, EdWASD VAUOHAlf. Vict. 

L. EL WTTJjAMSy JoHK, Aichbidiop of York. Jac. I. 

Car. I. 

B. E., KB... WiLLiAJCS, JoHH. Win. IV, Vict 

0. P. WiLLOTTOHBT, Thomas. Hen. YHl. 

K B., Com. G. S.| Wilmot, Johh Eardlst. Geo. H. HI. 

Ch. C. P. 

C. P., Com. G. S. WrLSOH, Johk. Geo. m. 
Just. Itin. . . . Wilton, Laurence de. Hen. IIL 
Just Itin. . . . Wilton, Kichard de. Hen. IL 
Just, P Ch. Just WiLTOv, William db. Hen. HI. 
B.E WiLTTGHBT, Philip DB. Edw. L 

C. P., K B., Ch. WiLireHBY, Bichabd db. Edw. HI. 

K. B., C P. • 
Just. Itin. . . . Wimer, the Chaplain. HeiLlL 

C. P. WurcH, Htjmphrbt. Jac. I. 

Just Itin. . . . Winchestede, John de. Hen. HL 

Winchester, Earl o£ SeeS,^ Quinqr. 
Winchester, Marquis of. . See W. Panlet 
L. Chanc, or L. K. Weetoham, Hbnbt de^ Bidiop of London. Hen. 

HL 
Just Itin. . . . Wisebec, Reginald de. Hen. IL 
Just Itin., Just . Witefeld, Robert de. Hen. IL Ric L 

B.E. . . . . . WODEHOTJSB, ROBEBT DB. Edw. II. HI. 

C. P WoDBSTOKB, Jambs de. Edw. HI. 

Just Itin. . . . Wogan, John. Edw. I. 

Just, Itin., ? Just Wollaveston, Henzy de. Hen. HI. 

M. R Wollobe, Davu) db. Edw. IH. 

B. E WoLSBLET, Ralph. Edw. IV. V. Ric. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Wolsby, Thomas, Archbishop of York Hen. VHI. 

B. E Wood, GEOBeB. Geo. m. IV. 

C.P., Ch.C. P. . Wood, Thomas. Hen.VH. 

V. C Wood, William Pa&b. Vict. 

B. E WoTTON, William, Hen. VHI. 

K B., Ch. E. B. . Wbat, Chblstopheb. Eliz. 

B.E., K. B. . . Weight, Mabuk. Geo, n. 

L. K Weight, Nathan. Will. IH. Anne. 

B. E., K. B., Ch. Weight, Robert. Car. H. Jac.n. 
C.P., Ch.KB. 



xlvi ALPHABETICAL LIST OT THE JUDGES. 

L. E.y L. Chanc. . Wriotheslet, Thomas, Loid^Earl of Soutliampton. 

Hen. Vm. Edw. VI. 

Just. Wrotham, WiUiam de. Eic* I. John., 

L. Chanc . . . Wtxehah, Williah de. Bishop of Winchester. 

Edw. m. Hie. n. 
K. B Wtmbxjbn, Waltbb db. Edw. I. 

B. £ Wymimdham, Thomas de. Hen. HI. 

C. P. Wtwdham, FEAiffcis. Eliz. 

C. P., B. E., 0. P. Wtwdham, Hfoh. Inter. Car. H. 

K. B Wtwdham, Wadham. Car. H. 

Wynford, Lord. See W. D. Best. 

PB.E Wynton, Elias de. Edw. L 

KB Wtthens, Francis. Car. H. Jac. n. 

PJnst. Itin. . . Wyther, William. Edw. L 

PB. E., Just . . Wyville, John de. Hen. HI. 

Y. 

E. B., C. P. . . Yaibs, Joseph. Geo. HI. 

Just. Yattinden, Nicholas de. Hen. HI. 

K. B Yelyerton, Christopher. Eliz. Jac. I. 

C. P. Yelvertow, Henry. Car. I. 

K. B Yelverton, William. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

M. R YoNGE, John. Hen. VU. VHI. 

C. P., KB. . . YoNGB, Thomas. Hen. VI. Edw. IV. 

Just Itin., Just . York, William op, Bishop of Salisbury. Hen. HI. 

L. Chanc. . . . Yoree, Charles. Geo. HI. 

Ch. K B., L. Chanc. Yorkb, Philip, Earl of Hardwicke. Geo. H. 

Z. 

P Just| Just. Itin. Zouche, Alan de. Hen. IH. 

Just Itin. . . . Zouche of Hanngwortih, William de. Edw. IH. 



i 



xlvii 



Division of the Judges^ mentioTied in the ni/ae Volumes 
of **The Judges of England^^^ vrUo the Reigns in 
which their Lives appear. 





VOL. 








VOL. 








I. 


William I. 


m 


12 


V. Henry VH. 


- 


32 






William IL 


- 


5 


Henry VIIL 


- 


50 






Henby L - 


- 


21 


Edward VL 


- 


17 






Stephen 


- 


7 


Mary- 


m 


13 






Henry II. - 


- 


102 


Elizabeth - 


- 


48 


1 




BiCHABD I. - 


- 


69 


VL James I. 


- 


33 


k 


TT. 


John - 


- 


72 


Charles I. - 


- 


47 






Henry ITI. - 


- 


292 


Interregnum 


- 


30 




TTT. 


Edward L - 


- 


116 


VIL Charles n. 


- 


39 






Edward IL 


- 


72 


James II. - 


- 


26 






Edward 111. 


- 


124 


William ITT. 


- 


20 




IV. 


Richard IL 


- 


44 


Anne - 


- 


10 






Henry IV. - 


- 


20 


VilL George L - 


- 


17 






Henry V. - 


m 


11 


George IL- 


- 


18 






Henry VL - 


- 


52 


George TH. 


m 


54 






Edward IV. 


- 


26 


TX, George IV. 


- 


14 






Edward V. 


- 


3 


William IV. 


- 


8 






Richard III. 


- 


5 


Victoria - 


- 


60 










In all 1589 Lives. 






' 








THE 


END. 







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